The Orb Weaver: Book One
by One Thousand Rains
Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified Nephila clavipes (a golden silk orb-weaver spider), boy genius and grade A nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighbourhood protector, with the help of his friends Daisy Johnson, Harry Osborn and Cindy Moon.
1. Origins, Part 1

Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified _Nephila clavipes_ , boy genius and Star Wars nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighbourhood protector.

* * *

 **The Orb Weaver  
** **Book One _  
Chapter One - Origins, Part 1_**

* * *

 **Present day, 11:39 PM, Manhattan,  
** **New York City, New York**

Working for the mysterious the Kingpin had its privileges. Even if the three of them were at rock bottom when it came to the actual hierarchy in the mob - they had, in their past decade of service, not once seen this Kingpin and frankly, they doubted such a guy even existed - it still meant they were undisturbed in their allotted territory. Freddy and his pals practically ruled this block, and although the majority of their criminal earnings went to the higher ups, they got a happy cut out of it all. Plus, the greatest thing was that this was no Hell's Kitchen; so, unlike his more unfortunate associates, Freddy didn't need to worry about a certain blind costumed freak. People like Stark on the other hand were too high up there to care about small fry like him.

In short, Freddy had the good life. His pals did too by extension.

He was one of three in his group still sober after the rave tonight, and so the trio of thugs had decided to add a little cherry on top of their cake. Que pretty lady walking home alone at night, and this day couldn't get any better.

"Somebody, please, _he-mmugh_!" the young woman's screams were silenced by the cloth tied around her mouth as a gag, as she was forcibly dragged deeper into the dark alley.

"Don't worry darlin', we're just wanna play a little!" Freddy cackled with his knife extended, his companion smirking beside him as the third held the sobbing, gagged woman in a tight grip. Freddy reached out with his free hand, intending to grab the woman's cheeks, when he felt it brush across something invisible, and, within a moment, a shining, golden thread seemed to fade in and then out of view.

"What the...?"

As Freddy glanced at his hand, he noticed the sticky, yellowish, thin threads that had gotten caught between his fingers. His eyes followed the threads, so thin they were almost invisible and yet they seemed to sparkle gold in the dim lighting of the alley. He quickly realized that they were stuck across not just his hand, but his entire forearm, lying loosely across his chest and, in fact, dangling over his legs too. It seemed that a giant mess of yellowish threads had covered him almost entirely, and now that he could actually see the entire thing through squinted eyes, it occurred to him that the sticky threads were arranged in an array, a pattern, one that looked like...

A gigantic, golden spider web.

Both he and his companion had walked into its lax strands, which were too thin for them to see properly, and it had entangled itself all over them. Now, even though our unfriendly neighbourhood thugs weren't the brightest bulbs in the alley, Freddy at least knew that spiders didn't normally spin webs this big.

"How...?"

 _Thwip!_

"WAA!"

The golden strands that had fallen over them suddenly tightened, and both Freddy and his buddy were jerked up into the sky, trapped in the giant web like flies.

The third one screamed as he saw his fellows get so frighteningly apprehended, and let go of the woman, who understandably ran away from the whole scene screaming and crying. The last thing he saw, however, was the black-gloved palm that found itself on placed his face, before he felt the placed fingers prick painfully over his entire visage and searing pain shot through his head down his spine and through each and every limb, before he began convulsing and fogging at the mouth and unconsciousness enshrouded everything in pain-filled darkness.

A short while later, the police arrived, sirens blazing. Captain George Stacy got out of his car to see, to his wide-eyed shock and the shock of his three fellow officers, the three unconscious men - one with a swollen, reddened face and fog coming out of his mouth - wrapped in cocoons of shining yellow silk, stuck to a gigantic golden orb web bridging the two buildings that formed the alley. They were all hanging thirty feet off the ground, with their mouths webbed shut.

"I told ya, didn't I, Cap? The rumours are true," Officer Carter whistled, before placing a cigarette in his mouth.

Captain George Stacy only vaguely registered what his fellow officer said, too dumbfounded by the whole scene. He noticed a small note, stuck to the web at his eye level, and numbly walked forward to pluck it out of the web. It refused to budge, stuck, and for fear of tearing it, the Captain let it remain where it was and slowly read aloud what had been written on it so that his fellow officers could hear.

" _'When you look at the dark side, careful you must be, for the dark side looks back,'_ \- Master Yoda..."

All four officers were stunned to seemingly perpetual stillness. A cricket could be heard chirping, and an audible breeze blew a tumbleweed down the alley.

Then, after the longest time, some movement occurred:

Officer Carter's cigarette fell out of his mouth.

* * *

 **8:05 AM  
One month ago, Oscorp Tower  
Conference Room, Sub-Level Three**

"I want results, Warren, and I want them last year!"

Norman Osborn's enraged voice echoed through the entire sub-level, and Dr. Miles Warren trembled at his boss' rant as he sat around a table in front of the suit-clad man alongside his fellow scientists, Dr. Curtis Conners and Dr. Ashley Kafka. The only other person there was a young man with dark, messy hair and a stubby beard, apparently in his late twenties, in a guard uniform who stood by the entrance to the Conference Room.

"B-But, sir," Miles began. "The serum is not yet ready to proceed to the level of human testin-"

"As Conners has already supplied, the results from the spider trial have come back extraordinary," Norman interrupted sharply, his glare piercing through Conners, the one-armed scientist flinching involuntarily in response and earning a smirk from Norman. "Am I right, Conners?"

Curtis took a deep breath and, with a wave, signalled at the small glass chamber that had been placed in the middle of the table, the inside of which was adorned with a visible shining yellowish web, a large yellow-and-black spider, a golden silk orb-weaver, visibly jumping from one wall of the chamber to another.

"Sir, the _Nephila_ strain we tested it on is already genetically-modified to include spliced genes from both _Salticidae_ and _Lycosidae_ families. It was a laboratory-bred polyhybrid, sir, based on Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker's earlier work on RNA interference," Conners began clarifying. "Yes, it is true that before the application of the **Virideserum** , none of the spiderlings survived beyond their first molts. When raised on the serum, the spiderling developed into an adult, the most amazing 'super spider' ever seen: it was still an orb-weaver, but with all of its own natural skills enhanced. Beyond that, it possesses the extraordinary eyesight and jumping abilities of jumping spiders and the robustness and agility of wolf spiders. If I've ever seen a scientific breakthrough in my life, _this_ is the one!"

"Then we move on to the next stage," Norman glanced pointedly at Warren, and at that point Curtis wiped the accumulating sweat on his brow with a tissue paper. "Human testing."

"Impossible, sir!" Ashley Kafka spoke up for the first time. "There are a million regulations to consider sir; mammal testing and primate testing invariably precede human testing, we'll never be able to legally justify it."

Norman smirked evilly, clasping his fingers together as he leaned back on his seat. "Let me tell you something, Kafka, all of you," Norman's smirk was replaced by a serious expression. "You can't try to recreate the Super Soldier Serum without taking risks. _Erskine_ took a risk, _Rogers_ took a risk... countless failures that history has forgotten preceded the momentous success that history celebrates - the birth of the Super Soldier, of Captain America. Let me tell you this right now that we, and by that I mean _me, **I**_ , and _**my** compan_y will never amount to _anything_ unless we throw caution to the wind!"

All three of the scientists in the room glanced at each other at that, visibly and great perturbed. Turning back to face Norman, Curtis attempted to speak.

"Sir, Erskine and Rogers were in the middle of a war! You _can't_ be serious, there are countless safety consid-"

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I'M SEROUS, CONNERS!"

Norman slammed his hand on the desk.

The shout and the sound of Norman's hand hitting the desk made the guard decide to pace inside Conference Hall to check if everything was alright. "Sir?" the young man inquired.

Norman glanced at his security officer, before being hit with an epiphany. "Yeah, you," he pointed at the guard suddenly, to the puzzlement of the scientists in the room. "What's your name, son?"

"Dillon, sir. Maxwell Dillon."

"Dillon, what do you say to not only having a million dollars transferred to your account tomorrow morning, but becoming the next Captain America?"

Dramatic pause.

"... **_What_** , sir?"

* * *

 **One hour later: 9:15 AM  
Robotics Hall, Science Exhibit  
Oscorp Tower, Second Floor**

"I can't believe you actually have free access to this place, Harry!" Peter Parker, a brown-haired and blue-eyed, shorter-than-average and rather scrawny teenager bedecked in a white sweater, dark jeans and black trainers, wiped the dust off his large glasses with his shirt before putting them back on, already wide eyes appearing magnified further. Not too dissimilar to a kid in a candy shop, the fifteen-year-old gawked at all the exhibits displayed around him.

The students of Midtown High were on a rare field trip to Oscorp. The company had arranged a science exhibit for the high schoolers, intending to show the next generation the latest advances in medicine, physics and robotics - three of many departments Oscorp Industries specialized in.

"Well, at least _one_ of us is having fun," Harry Osborn, Peter's slightly taller but similarly aged reddish-brown-haired companion, deadpanned.

While Peter Parker and Harold Osborn both came from families vastly different in socioeconomic statuses - Peter's aunt and uncle had always struggled to make ends meet, whereas Harry's dad was probably the single wealthiest man in New York after Tony Stark himself - they had still been the best of friends since Elementary School.

While Peter was a prodigy gifted in all subjects scientific, and Harry was the exact opposite of that, what they had truly bonded over at the dawn of their friendship was their mutual love of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and the _Millennium Falcon_. Not to mention the fact that Harry was a bit socially awkward - Peter's simplicity and lack of any expectations from Harry had also been a catalyst in their friendship.

The third of their childhood trio of besties had been a certain 'Eugene', who had long since outgrown his two geeky playfellows and their Star Wars and Star Trek obsessions and actually turned into their biggest bully once he had found fame through school football, and earned his place in the Popular Club.

Of course, no one ever outgrew Star Wars, Peter and Harry knew that quite well. So even though they had no evidence to incriminate him, they still knew that Eugene remained a Star Wars closet nerd.

Still, neither Harry nor Peter had ever quite forgiven Eugene for his betrayal, and Eugene, more famous now as 'Flash' Thompson, also hadn't graced his childhood friendship with a two even with so much as a passing mention in years.

"I'm serious, dude," Peter gave Harry a look, glancing up from inspecting a computer terminal connected to an electron microscope. "I mean come on, if _my_ dad owned something like Oscorp I wouldn't even dream of leaving this place!"

"It gets boring after the first fifty test tubes," Harry retorted, placing his hands in his pocket, uninterested.

"I don't know, Harry, I have to agree with Pete on this, this is a fascinating place..." a female voice interrupted their banter.

"Thank you, Cindy, at least _one_ of us appreciates the gamut of the human intellect," Peter smiled at the girl, Cindy, who was inspecting what appeared to a prototype of strange harness with four, large, metallic arms that were featured in the exhibit as the future of medical prosthetics.

Cindy Moon, a very pretty hazel-eyed Asian girl with shoulder length black hair, had been Eugene's replacement. Born to Korean-American father and a Korean mother, in, believe it or not, Seoul, Cindy had moved to New York with her father after her mother's death. She had joined Peter's class in the seventh grade, around the same time Eugene decided to ditch them and become Flash.

"Only _you_ could agree with him, Cin," Harry scoffed.

It was true: if anyone could outclass the Amazing Peter Parker in scientific knowledge, it was Cindy Moon.

Reason being that while Peter was naturally gifted of mind, Cindy was an exceptional hard worker - a "Book-o-phage", as Harry had dubbed her. Cindy's mother had been a scientist and professor when the Moons were in Seoul, and her untimely death had inoculated within Cindy the passion and motivation to strive and live up to her legacy. Thus, she sought knowledge wherever she could find it.

Her scientific aptitude was thus akin to Peter's, and her foreigner status made her an alien quite like Harry (who was considered an outcast simply for being a socially awkward son of a billionaire). Add to that the fact that the girls from 'the Popular Squad', led by Liz Allan, Gwen Stacy and Sally Avril, considered Cindy to be the plague since Elementary School - _"what kinda girl chooses books over looks?!"_ \- and had immediately resorted to making Cindy their very own punching bag.

From malicious pranks such pulling her hair to stealing her shoes, to openly bullying her, the Popular Girls had made Cindy's Elementary and High School years as difficult as Peter's and Harry's had been made by Flash and his goons.

Needless to say, Cindy had fit into their trio of outcasts quite well.

"Come on, lovebirds, the conductor's moving on ahead," Harry motioned with his head and promptly began walking over into the next hall.

Cindy blushed beet red at the 'lovebird' comment, glancing awkwardly at Peter. The boy was too focused on the schematics of a particle accelerator that were on display, however, and although he heard Harry's comment, Peter didn't actually take it seriously. Knowing he did not do so made Cindy feel both relief and a sense of shattered hope simultaneously... if that was even possible.

 _'Stop being stupid,'_ she said to herself for what only she knew to be the millionth time. _'It's not like that between us, we're childhood friends and that would be so... awkward,'_ and yet, despite knowing that, she found herself staring at Peter's turned back longingly. Cindy saw beyond the funny glasses, the scrawny physique and the nerdy habits; the boy was a jewel, more good-natured and caring than many people she knew, reliable and dependable. Not to mention, although she loved Harry as a friend too, Peter was the only one Cindy felt she could really talk to about the things that really mattered to her. He understood.

"Come on, Peter," she said softly, before turning around and beginning to walk out of the hall, her emotions now frustratingly haywire.

"Yeah, I'll be right there, just let me take a few pictures," Peter pulled out the Sony DSLR that Harry had gotten him for his birthday last year, after learning Peter enjoyed taking pictures from his cell phone as a hobby.

"Be careful, don't get separated," Cindy admonished, before going on ahead to join the rest of the class.

"I'll be right there..." Peter mumbled, largely to himself, too focused on his camera as he snapped a few photos of the exhibits.

Satisfied, the boy turned around to leave, before snapping his head towards his right. He thought he had seen something there out of the corner of his eye, and squinting he found himself witnessing a rather strange sight.

Something was moving rapidly behind a glass panel inside a door at the end of the hallway.

"What the..."

Peter walked towards the door and, with his sleeve, cleaned the fog from the glass to see clearly what it was that appeared to be moving behind it.

"A spider?"

It was apparently a rather large spider; about as big as Peter's thumb. He identified the genus with a simple glance, it was a _Nephila_ , or an orb-weaver spider. What was strange was, that although Peter knew these spiders to normally be gentle, the black-and-yellow orb-weaver seemed to actually be struggling against the glass panel in the door, bumping against it repeatedly, almost as if it were in pain and wanted to escape.

"I'll get ya outta there, just don't bite me," Peter said as, out of pure kindheartedness, he placed his hand on the door and tried to figure out a way to open it. While he was afraid of getting bitten by a rabid spider, he reasoned in his mind that _Nephila_ bites weren't exactly harmful to humans.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, Oscorp Tower  
** **Experimental Facility, Sub-Level Three**

"Are you sure this safe, Mister Osborn?" the guard, Max Dillon, asked as he lay on a stretcher and that a few scientists tightened the straps.

"Absolutely, son," Norman's voice cooed with false reassurance through the speakers, as he stood on the other side of a glass wall along with Ashley Kafka and Miles Warren. Curt, having fundamentally disagreed with all this, had excused himself from Norman Osborn's presence and resigned from working any longer at the company. Norman could care less; he did not deem cowards like Conners worthy of working by his side in his quest to achieve greatness. They would only slow him down at the end.

"We're ready to inoculate the Viridiserum, Mister Osborn," Miles spoke up, hesitant.

"Sir, if this is truly safe, why are we standing safely behind bullet-proof glass while the procedure takes place while letting one of Octavius' prototypes administer the serum?" Ashley Kafka asked, mistrust lacing her voice.

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst," Norman responded emotionlessly, and suddenly Ashley realized with wide eyes and a palpitating heart that she should have left with Curtis when she had the chance.

This man was insane.

"Well, do it," Norman issued the command, and Miles reluctantly traced his finger across a touchscreen pad in his hand.

A giant, robotic tentacle-like contraption, moving sluggishly, lowered itself from the ceiling, a green serum inside a needled syringe at its end. Exposed electrical wires surrounded the robotic tentacle - it obviously lacked a layer of insulation, having been assembled in haste on Osborn's orders, who was too excited at this point to give a damn about _any_ safety considerations whatsoever.

Seeing the monstrous robotic appendage with the really long needle, Maxwell suddenly began to have second thoughts.

"Uh... Mister Osborn, sir, you never said anything about... sharps..." he managed to get out.

"What, did you expect to be spoon-fed the serum?" the disgust was palpable in Norman's voice. "No matter, soon you'll become something more, something extraordinary, and then we won't have to worry about something as petty as Trypanophobia."

"No, Mister Osborn, please, I-"

"Do it, now, Warren, or you're fired!" Norman yelled at Miles on the other side of the glass, who closed his eyes, took a deep breath and pressed the button.

" ** _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH_**!"

The ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the entire sub-level as he needle was plunged by the robotic arm into Maxwell's neck. Both Miles Warren and Ashley Kafka, along with the other, lesser-ranking scientists in the facility, all watched on in horror, hearts plunging because of the throat-tearing scream.

The green liquid burned hotter inside Max's neck than anything he had ever experienced, and the burning pain quickly travelled to encompass his entire body. It was searing and excruciating, and while screaming and struggling against his binders, Maxwell's hand got loose and touched one of the exposed wires in the metallic arm.

There was a gigantic electrical spark and suddenly an explosion that shook the entire Oscorp Tower and caused Norman and his scientists to stumble, some to even fall down. The electrical grid of the entire Tower had obviously been disrupted due to the back-current from the electrical explosion, as the lights blinked on and off before momentarily dying, and after a five second gap the building shifted to back up power.

* * *

 **Same time  
Medicine Hall, Science Exhibit  
Oscorp Tower, Second Floor**

"What's going on?!" Gwen Stacy shouted, suddenly, as the lights blinked on and off before everything suddenly went dark.

"What the heck, Osborn?!" Flash Thompson's voice echoed in the darkness. "Did your Pops forget to pay the electricity bill?!"

While a few of his goons snickered loudly in darkness, much to Harry's annoyance, the Son of Norman Osborn anxiously bobbed his head right and left in the darkness. "Man, this looks like that scene from _Rogue One_ just before Vader ignites his red lightsaber in the darkness..."

Cindy smacked her head with her palm. " _Seriously_ , Harry, you and Pet-!"

Of course, that was when the back-up power came on, and most of the students breathed in sighs of relief.

Except Cindy, who was looking around, worried.

"Harry, where's Peter?"

* * *

 **Same time  
Robotics Hall, Science Exhibit  
Oscorp Tower, Second Floor **

Peter continued to attempt to push against the door, attempting to release the anxious spider stuck in the room on the other end of the door. Realising the door was not going to budge, Peter placed a hand on his chin, contemplating on how to get the spiders out of the room.

He grinned, before speaking in a strange accent. " _'Well, I suppose I could hotwire this thing.'_ "

Suddenly, the electricity of the entire building scrambled and, when the black out occurred, the door's controls had probably malfunctioned themselves and _swoosh_ ed open.

"Well, that solves that problem," Peter mumbled to himself, as turned on his cell phone's flashlight to navigate in the darkness and stepped across the door into the room on the other side. Meanwhile, the orb weaver he had been trying to rescue, who, unlike the myopic Peter, could see well in the darkness, silently and gracefully slid itself onto Peter's back and ending up finding its way inside Peter's backpack through a slightly open zip.

"Now, where'd that spid-"

The back-up power blinked on, and it was then that Peter realised that the room he had walked into was not a room, but an elevator.

The door _swoosh_ ed shut again, leaving Peter trapped inside the elevator.

"Hey!" the boy rapidly smacked his hand against the shut door multiple times. "Hey, open up, let me out!"

After two minutes of trying that, to no avail, a pit of dread settled in Peter's stomach. Looking at the elevator's control panel, which, strangely, lacked any labels whatsoever, the boy genius did the only logically coherent thing anyone with half a brain could've done in that situation:

He pressed a button.

 _'Going down, Sub Level 3'_ were the words uttered by a computerised, feminine voice before Peter felt the elevator begin its decent. When it finally reached its destination, the door _swoosh_ ed open again, and Peter found himself walking down a dimly lit hallway.

 _'Okay, creepy vibes,'_ he thought to himself, as he slowly stalked down the hallway, before seeing light coming off from the other hand. Naturally, Peter began to gravitate towards that light, thinking of locating one of Harry's father's men and informing them that he had gotten lost. They would probably get him back with the rest of the class.

 _'Man, this creepy place looks like an Imperial Prison,'_ he thought warily, and almost as if to add substance to his thoughts, his hair stood on end when he suddenly heard a screeching, feminine scream coming straight from the lit room. _'_

 _Oh, shi-!'_ Peter quickly hid behind the open door, glancing with a single scared and widened blue eye inside. He was afraid of what he would find there, but, to his alarm, he saw what appeared to be Harry's father, alongside a few other people dressed as scientists.

Dr. Ashley Kafka was the one who had screamed, tears flowing out of her eyes at the horrific crime she had assisted Norman in committed.

"Shut up, woman!" Norman bellowed, but his even his voice fell on deaf ears for once as the lady began to sob, only to be held in a soothing embrace by Miles Warren. Peter watched the whole scene from his hidden position fearfully. While he had only met him once or twice, he had never expected Harry's father to be such a hardhearted figure with his co-workers.

Unbenownst to our nerdy protagonist, in the stretcher where Maxwell Dillon the guard had been moments prior, now remained nothing except the scorched remains of a security uniform.

"W-What have you _done_?!" Ashley choked out at Norman, who merely growled darkly.

"It appears we may need to learn a little more from the Spider Project," Norman growled to himself, a hand resting on his chin as he ignored the shocked scientists around him, his mind to focused on salvaging this situation. While he was just as shocked at the rest of them about what had happened to Dillon - even _he_ could not have expected the man would get vaporised - he, at least, needed to remain pragmatic about all this and focus on the more pressing issue: the super soldier serum he was trying to reproduce. "We may need to add a genetic enhancer, based on Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker's formulas, to the Virideserum to help stabilise human cells to bear the enhancement procedure... if the spiders could do it, then it should be possible to extrapolate their physiological parameters to human scale..."

While both Ashley and Miles were horrified that the death, no, the _vaporisation_ of a man had absolutely no effect on Osborn's conscious, Peter from his hidden position was more focused on the name 'Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker'.

 _'Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker? My mother?'_ Peter knew his mother had been a scientist, but he had never heard of any involvement of hers with Oscorp, so what did she have to do with all this... this, top secret horrific experimental stuff that had the other female scientist in such a miserable state. _'What's Harry's Dad trying to do down here, make Frankenstein?!"_

Unfortunately, as Peter stepped back in shock, his foot struck something metallic and the resultant _clang_ alerted Norman and everyone else to the extra presence among their midst.

"Who's there?!" Norman shouted, but by then Peter had already turned around and bolted, running away from the place as fast as he could, the darkness preventing anyone from recognising him.

Norman growled at the suspected attempt at corporate espionage, quickly removing his phone from his coat pocket and speed-dialling his security chief.

 _"Yes Mister Osborn?"_ a thick, Southern accented voice answered on the other end.

"Schultz, there's someone in Sub-Level 3, moving fast," Norman supplied.

 _"Heh, you should've listened to me when I asked you to allow us to place video cameras on that sub-level, Mister Osborn, but you refused. Now, I can't visualise the person directly but through the building's motion sensors I can see a moving target on that level running downstairs to Sub-Level 4: Waste Treatment... yep, entering the pipes_ _."_

Norman smirked evilly. What he was about to do was hard, but spies did not deserve mercy, and perhaps this should send a strong message to his corporate rivals. "Seal the pipes. Flush him or her out."

 _"... As you wish, Mister Osborn._ "

* * *

" _Man_ , this whole place needs a freakin' _deodorant_!"

Peter said, pinching his nose with his hand as he tried to find his way out through the giant waste pipes which he was now inside. His heart thundered against his chest from all that running. Peter hated running; he was physically unfit, and the slightest effort always took its toll on him, plus it reminded him too much of all the crap he had to take from Flash at school.

He remembered his friends. Man, Cindy had told him not to wander off, how stupid had he been, over a stupid spider too-

Suddenly, Peter stopped, as he heard the sound of gushing water coming up behind him. It didn't take long for his genius mind to figure out that meant when one was inside a conduit pipe.

Eyes as wide as dinner plates behind his glasses, Peter Parker turned around just in time to see the last sight he would ever see as nerdy, geeky, Peter Parker.

The gigantic torrent of murky waste water that enveloped him in moments.

As his bones get crushed under the pressure, he felt the water enter his mouth and through his nose, costing him the ability to speak. He felt his breathing painfully slow down, and the last thing Peter Parker thought about before his world became dark was the grief that would be on Uncle Ben and Aunt May's faces when they would find out about his demise, grief that no child could ever wish to bring upon his loving caretakers.

The spider that had gotten inside his backpack was, too, flushed out by the water, but moments before its own inevitable demise, the spider - who had become greatly intelligent as a result of the Virideserum it had been bred on - somehow instinctively knew that the only way for it to survive now was to live on as a legacy. Through this human, this innocent and kindhearted one who had tried to free it without ulterior motive, the spider would live as another.

And thus, a mere moment before the water level rose to envelop Peter and the orb weaver and flush them both into the river to their deaths, the black and yellow spider spun a web-line that attached to Peter and zipped itself towards him. The moment it landed, it bit down, its fangs plunging into Peter's neck.

Only the body of an unconscious, brown-haired boy, taller and more well-toned than Peter Parker could have ever dreamed of becoming, washed up on the shore. The spider was nowhere to be found, its fragile body having been crushed due to the water pressure. Peter Parker in a sense had perished with it, both Peter and the spider having been dead for hours now.

And yet in another sense, they had _both_ survived...

... him as the _One_ , and it as the _Other_.

 **To be continued.**


	2. Origins, Part 2

**Author** **Note:** **Thanks to all those who followed and favourited this, but some reviews would be nice, people. I'd like to know what my readers think.**

Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified _Nephila clavipes_ (a golden silk orb-weaver spider), boy genius and grade A nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighbourhood protector.

* * *

 **The Orb Weaver  
** **Book One _  
Chapter Two - Origins, Part 2_** _ **  
**_

* * *

 _He should have been dead, and yet, somehow, he knew that he wasn't. He opened his eyes, and saw himself wrapped in a cocoon of golden spider silk, attached to giant orb web._

 _"Where am I?" he wondered aloud, scared out of his wits._

 _Then he looked up, and saw, to his horror, a giant spider, easily two storeys tall, with long and slender yellow and black legs, its leg-span extending further than the boy's entire field of vision. It stalked across the web from down below the boy's feet, until it stood directly on top of the boy, its eight beady black eyes bearing into Peter's very soul._

 _"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

 _Peter screamed in fright, but then, the spider spoke._

 _ **"Why do you fear, boy?"** her voice was distinctly feminine, something Peter didn't expect, but at that moment he didn't even care. His heart about to pop out of his chest in fright at the eight-eyed monstrosity that stood above him._

 _ **"Do not** **fear me...** **"** if Peter wasn't about to soil himself, he would have thought the giant spider monster's voice was almost comforting. **"... because from this day forth, I am you..."**_

 _"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

 _Peter screamed in fright again as the spider's large, fanged mouth parted and then it moved forward to consume the boy. Knowing escape was futile, Peter closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain._

 _ **"... we... are... Peter Parker... we are the Spider... we are the Same..."**_

 _That was the last thing Peter heard before the jaws of the behemoth snapped shut around his person, her fangs piercing straight through him._ _ **  
**_

* * *

 **Four Hours Later, 12:45 PM  
Near the Riverbank  
**  
Peter gasped awake, before his throat assaulted him in a relentless coughing session, which culminated in him vomiting out a considerable amount of dirty fluid. His entire body aching, and he realised it was wet too, and he felt cold, though thankfully the afternoon Sun he hoped would prevent him from catching anything.

Placing a hand on his throbbing head, Peter was assaulted by a strong scent, stronger than any he had ever smelled and quite foul, and then suddenly his head buzzed, assaulted with so much... _reverberation_? A strange, yet informative, sort of 'buzzing'.

" _Ugh_ , wh-what's happening to me?!"

Peter realised, he could, somehow, feel something flying through the air, small - a bird - and he somehow knew the exact distance that the bird was away from him. He could feel the vibrations in the air from the bird's flapping its wings.

And Peter could tell all of that with his eyes _closed_.

Snapping them open against the protests of his throbbing head, Peter suddenly realised he couldn't see a thing.

His glasses were on his face, the lenses cracked in multiple places. Without thinking much, what with his throbbing headache and the truckload that was assaulting his senses, Peter removed the glasses from his eyes.

He saw the bird, exactly where he had somehow known it was. It was what Peter guessed to be at least fifty feet up in the air, yet not only could Peter _feel_ it flying away, he could, from this distance, pick apart every single detail on the bird: it was white, with a damaged beak, and a small blackened feather in its left wing, possibly an injury.

"What the heck?!"

Suddenly, Peter's vision, as if 'zooming out', saw the bird suddenly much farther than he had seen it a moment ago. He looked down at his hands, and, amazed, he realised he could see each and every single crack in his fingers, and, what were these strange... were these hair? They seemed to be growing on his palms.

Peter then looked around. He realised quickly that the foul smell assaulting his nose was coming from himself, and resisted the urge to groan at that moment. What was creepy was he could differentiate between the scent: it was of industrial waste, yet it had been washed away by the river water so only trace amounts remained on his person.

... How did he _know_ that?!

Then, there was the mind-boggling fact that that he could suddenly see in 4K Ultra-HD.

Heck, even better that that. He could see colours he didn't even know existed, and it was all so clear and bright and focused!

He looked at the bird again; it was practically a speck in the distance now, and yet Peter could still make out a few of its details. Then, the colours... they seemed different than what they were before; richer and yet, everything seemed to have a whitish blue tinge to it. His field of vision was wider, and the world around him, from the rustling tree leaves at one end to the flapping of the bird's wings, it all seemed...

... slower.

Peter looked down at his cracked glasses, his sharp vision differentiating every droplet of water and every fissure and crack in the lens with exquisite detail.

"What just... happened to me?"

It was only then he realised his voice sounded different. It wasn't squeaky or childish, like it was just this morning. It was deeper, slightly more mature sounding. More like Flash's.

He placed a hand on his face, as he tried to tune out the buzzing in his head and feet, that he knew was him somehow perceiving the vibrations of cars moving on the road behind the tree-line. Turning back around, Peter looked at the river from he had, obviously, been washed ashore.

He saw his reflection in the water, and almost didn't recognize himself. He was obviously taller, his wet shirt hugged his form tight, easily showing off his newfound broad shoulders and well-toned upper body.

"... Puberty wasn't _this_ cool the _first_ time I hit it!"

* * *

 **Half an Hour later  
Manhattan**

"Yes- Aunt May, no- I'm _fine_!"

Still soaking wet, Peter found it both difficult and easy to navigate through the streets of Manhattan. Difficult, because he literally perceive the vibrations coming from every single car, person, kitten, rustling tree or bird- heck, practically anything within his immediate vicinity. He didn't even need to look at them to figure out what they were, as if his mind could predict what they were, how far and how big simply based on the varying amplitudes of the vibrations they produced.

Easy, because, well, he had been walking for over an hour now and he wasn't tired.

Somehow, his phone had made it through the entire ordeal without shorting out: he had luckily placed it in the same place as his camera, and remembered to zip that pocket in his backpack tight, so water hadn't gone in.

Of course, the good ol' Parker luck blessed him with three hundred something messages from Cindy, Harry, a "too scared to be in the same room as me, Puny Parker?!" from Flash, and the horde of missed calls from his aunt and uncle.

He had made the mistake of calling back.

"Aunt May, I'm fine! I, uh... yeah I got... sick, so I decided to leave the building and clear my head and I got... uh... sidetracked?"

As he said this, Peter mentally noted precisely where he was in Manhattan right now:

Adhering upside-down from the ledge at the fiftieth storey of a skyscraper.

As he had gotten away from the riverbank and approached the main streets, the sudden onslaught of what Peter now dubbed his 'Vibration Sense' had gotten so strong that Peter lost his balance momentarily, not used to all that sensory bombardment.

Then, the buzzing in his head had gotten so strong that his head almost exploded, and, shifting to automatic, his head turned the left to see the truck that was about to hit him, in slow motion ultra-HD vivid detail.

In his confusion, he had slipped off the sidewalk and onto the road.

Then, also on automatic, he felt the muscles in his legs contract and to his own amazement even more than the truck driver's who was slamming his hand on the horn and foot on the break, he had jumped over the truck.

He had jumped over the whole road, in fact.

And landed on an adjacent building.

Instead of being a splattered mess on the road like he was supposed to be, he was now stuck to a building using his hands and feet, without any effort or discomfort whatsoever. His palms and soles were stuck to it as if glued.

That was when Peter Parker realised he could now scale walls and jump half the length of a football field in a single leap.

"Yes, I know Aunt May, it was _extremely_ irresponsible of me, but like I said, I felt sick, and I... wasn't thinking straight," crouched upside-down on a building ledge, fifty storeys up in the air, Peter Parker felt bad about lying to his aunt. But the day's events, as they had begun to come back to him, had been so extraordinary and out-of-this-world that Peter knew he had much more on his mind right now than his conscience.

"I'm sorry for worrying you all, and apologise to Cindy for me too, okay?" He sighed. "Look, I'll be home in a little while, Aunt May... yeah I'm not going back in the school bus, I don't want to, uh... end up puking or something in it... no I-I'll be right there, Aunt May- yes, I can walk! Bye!"

He turned the phone off and stared at it, feeling it in his hands and noticing how different everything felt.

"So," the upside-down Peter thought out aloud. "A vibration sense, a danger sense, superhuman vision, increased stamina, ability to stick to walls and jump over trucks without any effort whatsoever..."

Peter looked at his hands, noticing a small, yellowish-gold, swelling on the ventral aspect of his forearm, just below his wrist.

His eyes widened as his extraordinary mind put two and two together, inspecting his arms by turning them around. "The spider... I tried to save, it bit me, moments before I... I drowned, and then... that dream... did that spider give me superpowers?"

He pondered more on that. "That spider... was an orb weaver. Orb weavers don't have excellent vision the way... these extra colours I can see, it's ultraviolet," he realized.

"Jumping spiders can see ultraviolet, and jump fifty times their own size. Was that orb weaver gene-spliced with DNA from other spiders?" he paused, recalling Norman Osborn and whatever crazy stuff Harry's Dad was up to in that building.

"Maybe that spider was one of their crazy experiments?"

He paused for a moment, incubating it all in his head, with a finger placed on his upside-down chin.

"Then these," he looked at the one centimetre across, yellow swellings near each of his wrists. "They resemble swollen lymph nodes... they're probably... silk glands, spinnerets..."

In order to test his theory, Peter pointed his palm at the opposite building, and clenched his hand into a fist, thereby contracting the muscles in his forearm.

A line of sparkling yellow silk shot out from the gland beneath his wrist, spreading into a giant, circular web upon striking the building, gleaming gold in the sunlight.

Peter just stared at what he had done, flabbergasted. _'It's gold...'_ he noted. _'Orb weavers have carotenoids, yellow pigments, in their silk, that shines like gold in the light...'_

Then, a passing thought about spiders being able to lift many times their own body weight came to mind, and Peter made a fist and struck the ledge he was perched on at one corner.

His fist went straight through the concrete.

 _'Okay... add spider strength to the list...'_

The next few minutes passed in stillness, Peter didn't utter a word, remaining high up, stuck to the skyscraper in his upside-down, crouched position.

 _'What have I become?'_

* * *

 **Oscorp Tower  
** **Norman Osborn's Office,** **Sixty-Seventh Floor**

"What do you _mean_ the spider is gone?!"

Norman slammed his fist down on his desk, and Miles Warren flinched at his boss' ear-piercing yell.

"S-Sir, it apparently, escaped... somehow... it probably hit its glass container and pushed it from the inside until it fell off the shelf it was on... we found shards of broken glass in the Conference Room. It's most likely in the wild now, far beyond our reach."

Norman growled, though sat back in his seat in wonderment a moment after. "How can a creature so small... it truly was a 'super spider'," he looked back up at Miles. "How long will it take to create _more_?"

"More spiders bred on Viridiserum? I... I can't say, this used to be Conners' department-"

"It's yours now!" Norman announced. "Whether it be spiders or... try experimenting on larger animals."

Miles pushed his glasses up his nose. "You mean, rodents or...?"

"Spiders, scorpions, felines, jackals- heck, use _rhinos,_ for all I care!" Norman shouted. "Just get me _results_ , Warren! If we can figure out what makes the Virideserum work in these lesser species, we'll know how to make it work in humans!"

Miles sighed, shaking his head before picking up the files off the desk and taking his leave. He decided not tell Norman about the vial of Viridiserum that was missing, too. The man was mad enough as it was without knowing about that.

"As you wish, Mister Osborn."

* * *

 **Conners' Home**  
 **Personal Study**

Curt Conners leaned back in his seat, clenching the stub that once used to be his arm. A cup of hot chocolate was blowing off steam on one side of the table.

He had finalized his decision and resigned from Oscorp posthaste. Curt was a good man; he knew the road Norman Osborn was walking on was not one he could follow. He had joined Oscorp and partaken in their genetics research in order to find a cure, both for his ailment and others' in similar morbidities.

Norman Osborn, however, had no interest in such trivial things as bringing life, even if Oscorp did lead in medical research - it was purely for monetary profit and it helped give the company a decent rep. But Norman Osborn was more focused on making a super weapon and securing military contracts, even if it meant ruining the lives of innocents in the process.

So, first, Curt needed to find a job and then, continue his research on his own. He had the necessary knowledge base now and sufficient experience, and not to mention...

He glanced at the other end of his desk. In a reinforced glass jar, a small yellow and black spider stalked about. Next to it were two similar jars, one with a lizard specimen inside it and the third with a preserved piece of the human liver, procured legally from a cadaver.

He had falsified records and lied to Osborn, claiming only one spider had survived being bred on Viridiserum, whereas _two_ had done so out of the one hundred specimens.

He glanced at the vial of radiant green fluid next to the animal specimens. He had everything he needed now to finish his project independently. He just needed a decent laboratory to work in, because it was difficult to experiment with recombinant DNA, RNA interference, and Argonautes in a personal study.

"Daddy!" his eight year old boy, Billy, knocked and walked into his study. "Mommy told me to give you this," he handed his father a newspaper.

"Thank you, my boy," Curt ruffled Billy's head with his single hand, before taking the paper from him. He saw the ad his wife had highlighted: 'VACANCY, CHEMISTRY TEACHER, MIDTOWN HIGH'.

 _'A high school? Sounds about right... they'd have a decent lab I could set up shop in.'_

"Hey Dad, wanna go out?!" Billy asked hopefully, and Curt smiled, placing the paper at his side table. He closed the book titled 'Regeneration in Reptiles: A Discussion on Physiology and Genetic Constituency' by Dr. Henry McCoy, that had been on his lap this whole time. He placed the book over the newspaper on his desk, and got up.

"It's been a while since we spent some quality time together, hasn't it?"

Billy grinned tooth to tooth before bolting out of his father's study, Curt chuckling and following behind.

* * *

 **Attic, Parker Home  
Later That Evening**

He had felt bad about lying to Uncle Ben and Aunt May. So, _so_ bad. He didn't remember the last time he had lied to them like this: probably never.

It was a necessity, he has reassured himself. They were not ready to know about this. _No one_ was ready to know about this. They were surprised enough as it was to see him suddenly taller, more muscular and free of spectacles, in sharp contrast to how he had left them after breakfast this morning.

Since Uncle Ben couldn't figure out a clever use for it, Peter had taken to making the attic his own personal little lab. His working table, laptop and and microscope lay just under a poster of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Han Solo on the wall.

Currently, he was sitting on his laptop, typing away and reading through articles upon articles about spiders. Orb weavers, jumping spiders, wolf spiders, other species. It had occurred to him that he may mutate into a full-on 'man-spider' monster, but it did not do good to dwell on paranoid thoughts, and Peter had filed that one to back of his head. He was stable, so far. In any case, he had taken some of his blood, analysing it in a microscope, before placing it in a make-shift gene analyzer he had assembled a couple of years ago as part of a Science project.

A Science project sponsored by the legendary Reed Richards himself, and one that Peter Parker had gotten First Place in. Doctor Richards had said, that day, that Peter had the potential to surpass even him - Peter couldn't believe that, but Aunt May and Uncle Ben had been ecstatic.

Grade A nerd Peter Parker was a genius, far smarter than his years, in many departments. Biochemistry being his favourite, but he was just as gifted in assembling things, and in programming.

'Completed, the gene analysis is, hmm!' the written message popped up on the screen, next to a small icon resembling the head of Master Yoda.

'Yoda' had been an AI that Peter had coded himself in his free time - which, it must be said, he had loads of, considering his homework was entirely unchallenged and quickly finished, and he had dubbed by all of Midtown High as entirely ineligible for a social life. Peter had been inspired by Iron Man, the billionaire CEO Tony Stark, who had created an AI named JARVIS. Like his Iron Man identity, Stark's state-of-the-art personal AI was public knowledge.

Who 'YODA' was based on was quite obvious. It was not nearly as advanced as JARVIS, but that was mostly because Peter hadn't developed YODA enough yet. For instance, YODA was still a text-based AI - Peter hadn't gotten to developing a voice-based system for the AI yet.

In any case, Peter had instructed YODA, installed on his laptop, to analyse the DNA sample. He clicked open the results, and sat back in his seat as he saw them.

"Primarily Human," he read aloud. "Traces of spider DNA, matching those of _Nephila clavipes_ the orb weaver, and multiple species smaller traces from jumping spider and wolf spider families... Wolf spiders too?" Peter looked at the window, seeing it was almost dusk.

"I wonder if I can see in the dark..." Wolf spiders were known for their nocturnal vision.

A *ding* signalled a message on Facebook, and Peter saw it was from Cindy.

 _"Are you feeling better now? Your aunt said you were sick, that's why you left the field trip."_

Peter typed in a response. 'Yeah, much, much better, in fact.'

Her reply came a short while later. _"That's great lol. You should've stuck around though, you'd been looking forward to this field trip for_ _ages."_

Peter grimaced, suddenly reminded of Norman Osborn. Before this morning, he had actually looked up to the man. But he was curious to find out what kind of illegal stuff the guy was up to.

 _"Hey Pete?_ _"_

Peter glanced back, noticing he had dazed out again and forgotten to reply to Cindy.

'Yeah, just... I caught something bad is all, I needed to get out' he typed back.

 _"Right. Well, rest up and, see you tomorrow at school?"_

School. Of course, Peter realised how different everything was going to be. He was not going to be picked on by Flash and his goons anymore - with his spider strength, he could kick their butt all the way to the Death Star and back! And he could protect Cindy and Harry from Flash's goons too. He was gonna be _so_ popular now, and he'd make sure to share it with his friends!

Grinning, Peter typed back his response. 'Yeah, tomorrow at school. Can't wait to see you.'

He then closed the chat and opened up the BBC page on spiders. "Spiders can run up to seventy times their body length in a second... does that mean I have super speed, too?!"

* * *

 **Moon Household  
** **Cindy's Room**

 _"Yeah, tomorrow at school. Can't wait to see you."_

Cindy could not stop the gasp from escaping her lips, before he placed a hand on her chest to calm herself down. She saw him go offline, and closed the chat herself, walking over and plopping down on her bed.

"Take it easy, Cin," she spoke to herself. "He meant 'you' in the plural... 'you and Harry'," she reassured herself.

Why? Why did he mean it in the plural? Cindy didn't want it to be that way.

Then she placed a hand on her face, chest rising before she breathed out deeply in a massive sigh. "Oooh, what am I going to do?! 'Peter Parker, I think I'm in love with you'... I could never say that to him. We've been friends since we were children, it could ruin _everything_ we already have..."

Cindy sat up straight on her bed, "I need to distract myself."

She searched for her book on Advanced Robotics, before grabbing her marker and beginning to write formulas and draw diagrams on the white board. She was working in assembling a home-made robot. There was little she could do with her limited resources, but Cindy was bright enough to figure something out. She rivalled Peter in that department, after all.

* * *

 **Night time  
Residential Apartment Complex  
Manhattan, New York  
**  
Electricity crackled and arced around the transformer, before travelling, as if sentient, from it down the power cables towards the apartment complex. A powerful, explosive spark occurred before the a lightning arc shot out of the power cables, striking the ground and charring the sidewalk black.

Another explosive spark, and then, the strangest thing: a humanoid literally _fazed_ into view, bolts and arcs of lightning caressing and shooting off his person. The man had light blue skin, dark blue hair spiked upwards, and pure white eyes void of irises.

He looked at his hands. **"W-What... has happened... to me?!"** his voice scrambled, not quite natural, as if it were some kind of recording being played.

Max Dillon looked down at himself, before bringing his hands by his sides as lightning bolts danced over him and the sidewalk. He looked around, noting the street was largely abandoned. Rage welled up inside him as he remembered the man who had done this to him...

In his rage, a storm of lightning bolts and electrical arcs enveloped him as the lights in the entire city blocked flickered on and off before, another explosive electrical spark occurred and Max disappeared, as if never there. The only difference was that now the entire city block had blacked out, people beginning to file out of their homes to see what was wrong.

They were greeted by a pained, bodiless voice, yelling:

 **"OSBORN!"**

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	3. Origins, Part 3

**Author Note: Thank you to all those who reviewed. Keep at it.**

Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified _Nephila clavipes_ (a golden silk orb-weaver spider), boy genius and grade A nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighbourhood protector.

* * *

 **The Orb Weaver  
** **Book One _  
Chapter Three - Origins, Part 3_**

* * *

 **Next day  
Midtown High School**

With a newfound sense of confidence and bedecked in a red hoodie over blue jeans, Peter Benjamin Parker walked down the school hallways and turned heads. Many wondered who the new kid was. Others, who recognised 'Puny Parker', rubbed their eyes to make sure they weren't seeing things.

Peter smirked. He couldn't say he minded the attention, for once.

The brown-haired boy walked over to his locker to take out his books, before hearing his best friend's voice.

"Peter?"

Turning around, Peter smiled at Harry, who was staring at him shocked. Despite himself, Harry shared his usual fist-bump followed by handshake greeting with Peter.

"Hey Harry. What-up, what-up?"

"Dude, you're as tall as me now... and, what, did you take steroids or something last night?" Harry asked, flabbergasted.

Peter laughed. "Harry, steroids... don't work that way. I guess I just..." he scratched the back of his head, not really knowing what to say. Peter remembered that Harry's father was connected to all this, so he couldn't tell him. He trusted Harry with his life, but that would just make things awkward.

"Push-ups," he lied, making Harry raise an eyebrow. "... Yeah, I started to, erm, take some time out and... work out."

"Didn't you ditch us because you were sick yesterday?" Harry inquired suspiciously. "And where are your glasses?"

Gulping, Peter thought up something to say. "They, uh... broke," well, it wasn't a complete lie. "I'm wearing contacts till I can get new ones."

Harry smirked suddenly, before leaning towards Peter and whispering in his ear. "If you're doing all this to impress the G-Queen, I think it just might work," he signalled with his eyes for Peter to look behind him.

Sure enough, Peter saw his blond-haired classmate and long time crush, Gwen Stacy, codenamed 'G-Queen', staring at him, before quickly averted her gaze with an embarrassed expression when she saw him looking back. Next to her, Sally Avril stood paralysed in shock at Peter's transformation, facing him with a slack jaw and bulging eyes.

"I think I just gave Sally hyperthyroidism," Peter whispered, eliciting a laugh from Harry.

"Wait..." Harry spoke up, suddenly remembering something.

"... Where's Cindy?" Peter completed his sentence for him.

The two turned around to glare murderously at Gwen and Sally. They were both standing outside the door to the Girls' Washroom, without Liz Allan or Cindy Moon in sight. That could only mean one thing...

* * *

 **Girls' Washroom  
**  
"Liz, I'm sorry, let go of me- _brrbrrr_!"

Cindy, held by her hair, was promptly shoved into the open sink by Liz Allan, her face being perpetually bombarded by heavy running water.

"You're damn right you're sorry! Be happy I'm not like my man Flash," Liz sneered. "Otherwise, I'd shove your face down the toilet like he does to your boyfriend Parker, you little know-it-all."

Cindy spluttered in the water in protest, but Liz held both of Cindy's hands behind her back with one hand - Liz's other hand holding Cindy's hair - in a firm lock.

"This'll teach you to watch out before bumping into me the next time and getting all your geek germs on me," Liz shouted over the sound of running water and a spluttering Cindy.

Suddenly, Liz heard the sounds of quarrelling and argument outside the door before it was kicked open by Harry Osborn, much to the indignant shouts of Gwen and Sally, who were held in a strong grip by some brown-haired kid.

"Let her go, Liz, _now_ ," it took a moment for Liz to recognise the brown-haired kid. She even thought he was more good-looking than Flash, before realising precisely who it was.

"Puny Parker?!"

In her shock, her grip on Cindy loosened, and the Korean girl pushed her back before running over to Peter and Harry, the water dripping from her face hiding her tears.

Liz flinched at Harry and Peter's murderous expressions, especially Peter's. His piercing blue eyes piercing a hole straight through her soul, they were so unnaturally intense in their gaze. For a moment, Liz Allan felt like a fly caught in a predatory spider's web.

Despite herself, Liz managed to re-assume her Alpha Female facade. "W-What are you looking at, Dumber Dorker?"

While 'Puny Parker' was Flash's brainchild, 'Dumber Dorker' had been Liz Allan's very first name for 'Peter Parker', back when she had first met the class geek on joining Midtown Elementary. She thought the name she had coined for him was ingenius, but at seeing the murderous look in Peter's eyes intensify, she almost soiled herself then and there.

"Alright, listen up," Peter spoke, pointing a finger at Liz, and she noted he didn't even _sound_ like the Dumber Dorker she knew.

Peter, for his part, was confident in his newfound powers, knowing he had nothing to fear anymore from bullies like Liz and Flash. "I've had _enough_ of you, especially your treatment of my friends. Touch Cindy again, and I'll make sure you regret it," he whispered the last part menacingly.

While Gwen stayed silent, too shocked this was even happening, Sally spoke up mad. "H-Hey, who do you think you're talking to, Parker?! That's Flash's girl, or did you get flushed down a toilet yesterday and forget that?!"

Peter flinched at the 'flushed down a toilet' remark... that _was_ kinda what happened. But he pushed it to the back of his mind.

"I've had enough of all of _you_ ," he waved his hands at the girls, though he cast a sad glance towards Gwen, who, unbeknownst to him, actually caught it and understood his disappointment, and to her own shock it actually ended up making her feel bad, "and enough of _Eugene_ and his gang of apes. From now on, I'm fighting back, and I'm gonna kick all your butts and teach all of you a lesson if you come near me and my friends again!"

The crowd of students that had gathered at the entrance to the washroom gasped in shock at that loud declaration.

"Whoa, dude, chill out, that's going too far," Harry whispered as he placed a hand on Peter's shoulder to calm his friend down.

"Come on, let's get outta here. Come on, Cin," Harry gently nudged the shocked girl.

Cindy nodded her wet face absently, too taken aback by Peter. Cindy had admitted to herself that she loved Peter, even if she wasn't really sure what 'love' was, yet. But she had never been attracted to Peter's looks - mainly because he hadn't ever been much to look at. It was his personality that had charmed her. The transformation he had undergone, well, she had to admit he was suddenly really good-looking, but the way he was behaving was not the Peter she knew.

"Come _on_ ," Harry said again, dragging Peter and Cindy out of the washroom and through the shocked, murmuring crowd.

* * *

 **Oscorp Tower**

The main power grid of the Oscorp complex suddenly exploded with an electrical spark. Arcs of electricity danced around the power room as the two workers stationed inside leapt for cover, before Max Dillon fazed into view.

"What in the world?!" one of the two electricians hired to maintain the power room screamed.

 **"OSBORN~!"** Max screamed. **"Where is he?!"** pointing his hand at the electrician who had spoken, an electrical arc shot out of Max's hand towards the him, electrocuting him and causing him to yell and scream in pain while being lifted up into the air.

 **"WHERE IS HE?!"**

"... O-O-O-O-Of-Of-Off-i-ice... !" was the last word that came out of the electrician's mouth, before the arc of lightning that Max was producing accidentally intensified, overloading as it travelled through the electrician's body before his charred, blackened remains fell to the ground, much to the horror to his companion, who turned tail and fled.

" **What?! No! I didn't mean to...** " Max stared, horrified at what he had done to the man. He had only intended to interrogate, never to kill... Max had been trained as security personnel, he had been trained to kill when necessary but this man had been innocent.

He had just committed murder. It had been an accident, he had lost control of this... horrific _power_ , belonging to this terrible monsterthat Osborn had turned him into. Guilty and shocked, no pun intended, Max's eyes narrowed in uncontrolled rage.

He growled, staring at the blackened, burned carcass of the electrician. **" _YOU_ DID THIS, OSBORN!"**

Max, electrifying himself, disappeared back into the power grid, intending to travel up the cables towards Osborn's Office on the upper floors.

* * *

 **Norman Osborn's Office**

 **" _YOU_ DID THIS, OSBORN!"**

Norman stared at the wide-screen LED monitor in his office playing the footage of what was going down in the Power Room. While outwardly, his face was impassive, seeing the monster that Dillon had become brought to Norman Osborn a state of sick glee.

This could only mean the Viridiserum could work on humans. _'I didn't have the robotic arm that he touched insulated... he didn't vaporise, he turned into something much more! This is_ perfect _!_ '

"Sir?" Miles Warren asked nervously behind him, obviously scared out of his wits.

Norman grinned maniacally. "Fear not, Miles, let him come here."

The second time this week, Miles Warren realised his boss was entirely insane.

Norman turned to the third occupant in the room. "You're sure you can handle him, right, Schultz?"

The dark brown-haired, fair-skinned, lightly bearded muscular man dressed in a black jacket, black shirt and black baggy pants, grinned, speaking in his particular accent. "As long as I have these babies, you got nothin' to worry about."

The 'babies' in question were wrist-mounted gauntlets attached to metallic gloves that the man named Herman Schultz was cradling.

Norman, Herman and Miles stared up at the ceiling as the lights flickered on and off over the entire Oscorp Tower, before Max Dillon appeared in the room in a lightning bolt shooting out of the air conditioner.

 **"OSBORN!"**

"Maxwell," Norman cooed, smirking. "How magnificent it is to see that our experiment was a success!"

Max's white eyes narrowed as his face contorted into an enraged grin. **"YOU TURNED ME INTO A MONSTER!** **"**

Norman tsk'ed, before putting on his manipulative facade. "Now, now, my boy, you're the furthest thing from a monster. I turned you into something much _more_ than you could ever have hoped of becoming. Let Oscorp take you in for research, and we can help you control these powers. You'll be able to do things you never thought possible, you'll be the next Captain America, leading the world into a new era!"

Max hesitated, falling for Norman's manipulative streak, before then he reconsidered as he saw his hands, the blue skin, arcs of lightning dancing around it. He remembered the man he had killed, burnt to a corpse. Yes, he had agreed to becoming a super soldier experiment for Norman for a million dollars, for a prestige, but this was nothing like what he had read Captain America had become. Captain America didn't turn into an ugly electrical monster who could kill people without even trying!

 **"I... I never wanted it to be _this_ way!" **he shouted, and Norman scowled as Miles Warren quickly leapt and hid behind his desk.

Maxwell Dillon pointed a charging palm at Norman Osborn. **"Turn me back to the way I was and get out of my life, or I-I'll...!"** he hesitated.

Unafraid, Norman simply scoffed. "Or what, you'll _kill_ me?" He then gave Max a mocking smile.

 **"AARGGH!"** Max screamed, charging up an electrical orb in his hand, however at that point Schultz pointed his gauntlet - set to maximum - at Max.

"Alright 'Electro', time to get 'shocked'!" Schultz quipped, unknowingly bestowing upon Maxwell Dillon the name he would soon become infamous by, before firing a blast of vibrating energy at him.

 **"AAAH!"** Max screamed in pain as he felt every molecule in his body vibrate with such painful intensity that it became intolerable even in his powerful state, as he was launched back through the window glass with shattered upon impact causing Max to fall down Oscorp Tower from over a height of sixty floors.

Only to disappear, without a trace, in a bolt of lightning.

* * *

 **School Cafeteria  
Midtown High**

Peter put his tray on the desk before sitting down in-between Cindy and Harry, beginning to eat in silence. Feeling their stares on him, he turned to them.

"What?"

Cindy spoke up timidly. "Erm... its nothing, Pete, just, what you said to Liz..."

"I'm sick and tired of taking crap from them, Cindy," Peter shot back hotly.

"They're not worth it, Peter," Harry said from his side, and Peter scoffed, agreeing, continuing to chew on his food.

Cindy stared at him silently, worried. This wasn't the Peter she knew. He was acting odd; he was overconfident and arrogant. The Peter she knew, the one she thought she had come to _love_ , was humble, down-to-earth and friendly. What had happened to him in the span of the past one day?

"Peter..."

"PARKER!"

Cindy turned around, hazel eyed widened as the entire Cafeteria turned around to look at Flash Thompson. The jock was red-faced, steaming and looking ready beat Peter Parker all the way to 2099 and back.

Peter stood up confidently from his seat and turned around to face him, before Cindy grabbed his hand. "Peter, don't!" she pleaded, but Peter brushed her hand off.

"Pete...!" Harry warned, standing up behind Peter, but he was interrupted by Flash's shout echoing across the Hall:

"HOW DARE YOU TALK TO MY GIRL LIKE THAT, PARKER?! YOU WANT A PIECE O' ME, HUH, ISTHATIT?!"

Peter smirked. "Wow, Flash. I did that before classes began. It only took you, what," Peter looked at his watch, "five periods to get mad at me? I knew you were slow, but, wow, I'm impressed."

The entire cafeteria crowd gasped. Cindy glanced at Liz, Sally, Gwen Stacy, Kenny Kong and Seymour O'Reilly, Flash's circle of 'popular friends', all staring in enraged, but stunned, silence.

Seeing red, turning red and blowing off clouds of red hot steam from his ears (figuratively speaking, of course, but Flash _was_ quite red then), Flash Thompson cocked his fist back to hit Peter Parker.

"You know, all this time, I've been holding back on you because of what we once had," Flash whispered, so low only Peter could hear, and he raised an eyebrow at that. "But you deserve a beating, Parker, a good one."

"'Holding back'? Because of... what, our childhood friendship?" Peter asked, flabbergasted, before shouting angrily, "You call giving me daily wedgies, shoving my face in the toilet seat, giving me black eyes once every week and bullying my friends, 'holding back'?!"

"Peter, no!" Cindy shouted, knowing what was coming.

"SHUT UP!" Flash cocked his fist back and aimed to end it with one, straight blow, intending to knock Peter's teeth out. However, with his enhanced vision and reflexes, Flash's movement appeared terribly slow, and with his enhanced speed, Peter caught Flash's arm in his grip mid-strike.

The entire cafeteria crowd gasped, none more shocked than Harry and Cindy, as they heard Flash began to grunt, then moan and then scream in pain as Peter - gently on his part, but it was more than enough for Flash - twisted Flash's arm behind his back and then hit him in the face with his other fist.

The push was so strong that Flash Thompson fell back several feet, skidding across the floor, before spitting blood out of his mouth as he held his broken nose in pain.

"Whoa..." Harry muttered, still trying to process what he had seen. "... you didn't tell me you've been doing karate, man..."

As Peter saw Flash's friends crouch around him and help him get up, and then out, of the cafeteria, he knew he should've felt a sense of satisfaction. Finally, after years of bearing the brunt of Flash's anger, Peter had fought back valiantly. He should've felt like a triumphant knight or a conquering king, and yet, Peter realised he felt none of those things. Staring at Flash limping away, clutching his arm and face, damaged, for some unknown reason left a hollow pit in Peter Parker's stomach.

He looked at Harry, who was both surprised and unnerved as he stared back at Peter. He looked at the crowd, some of whom were staring, others with slacked jaws, others were mouthing 'weirdo' and yet others quickly filing out of the cafeteria. He saw Gwen Stacy turning around from near Flash and staring at Peter, shocked and even frightened.

Finally, Peter turned to face Cindy, who actually had tears in her eyes.

"Cindy?"

"W-What's _happened_ to you, Peter?" she asked, her voice trembling as she looked at him.

Peter, already feeling guilty for what he had done, reacted negatively at her accusing tone. " _Me_? What did _I_ do? He deserved that!"

Cindy wiped the tears welling up in her eyes, before turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Something's happened to you," she said, stopping, and glancing back towards him. "You're not the Peter I know."

Peter looked at Harry, who instead found his shoes more interesting at that moment, and Peter realised he was silently agreeing with Cindy. The brown-haired boy scoffed, in denial of his own guilty feelings.

"You're right," Peter grunted at Cindy, "I'm _not_. The Peter you knew is _dead_. Now are you satisfied?"

At that, Peter turned around and stomped away angrily. Cindy and Harry just stared at his retreating back.

Noticing how distressed Cindy was at the moment, tried to temper the mood a little, parodying a certain geriatric space frog.

"The boy you loved, gone he is... consumed, by Darth Vader."

Cindy sniffed before lightly pushing Harry in protest and stomping away herself, but not before shouting, "I don't _love_ that jerk!"

Harry groaned, palming his face.

* * *

 **Parker Household  
Later That Afternoon**

Peter returned home that day in an understandably sour mood. He felt guilty, he felt w _rong_ about what he had done to Flash Thompson, at how he had blown off Cindy and Harry. But why? He was so much stronger now, he had so much power. If he paid Flash back for that he had to endure at Flash's hands over the past five years, what was so bad about that?

Closing the door behind him and kicking off his shoes, Peter decided to just push it all to the back of his mind and think about it later, only to hear his aunt call.

"Peter, is that you?"

"Yes, Aunt May," he responded. "I'm home."

"Peter," it was his uncle Ben this time, and the tone of his voice was all Peter needed to hear. "Come here, son."

Peter loved his uncle Ben, his father's younger brother. The man had lost so much in his life, and had to struggle against such difficult odds, yet he had persevered. He had lost his parents at an early age, and Ray - full name Richard Parker - his elder brother and he were left all alone in the world. Ray juggled between freelancing and part-time jobs to raise enough money for both himself and Ben, until Ben was old enough to take care of himself. Ray and Ben loved each other - brothers, best friends, each the only thing the other had.

Having had to struggle and take care of both himself and Ben, Ray had learnt a lot about responsibility, and experiencing so much at such a young age had made Ray wise beyond his years, and Ben looked up to his elder brother.

Benjamin Parker had learned about power, responsibility, honesty and integrity from his elder brother, Richard.

Then, eventually, Ben had found May, and Ray had found Mary, and things had started to look up for the Parkers. Mary was an illustrious and celebrated scientist, May was a dentist and Ray had been drafted into the army. Ben didn't have as fancy a job as any of them, but being a simple salesman in an appliance store was enough for him, and he was content.

May had to undergo a hysterectomy early on due to a medical condition, rendering Ben and her unable to have children. Then, when Peter was three years old, and Mary Parker had been pregnant with hers and Ray's second child, Ray, who had now been transferred to some kind of intelligence service, had gone Missing-In-Action, before being declared dead a few months later. The Parkers had been devastated, but none more so than Mary, who had fallen severely ill during her pregnancy, suffering from some kind of antepartum hemorrhage.

Within a span of six months, Ben Parker had lost his brother, his role model and the man who had literally raised him. He had also lost his sister-in-law and an unborn niece, and for the first time since his parents had died, Ben Parker had felt truly alone in the world.

Ray wasn't here to pick him up, not this time.

"But he was," Ben had told Peter once when he was nine. "He was... through his son. Through _you_ , Peter, Ray, for the second time in my life, got me out of the pit of loneliness, and stood me back up on my feet."

Through all of that, Ben Parker had raised a family, he had raised _Peter_. Peter saw his uncle as the ideal citizen, a role-model of a man, seeped in wisdom and rooted in honesty. Being his father's brother naturally made him the closest living thing, both genetically and otherwise, to his Dad, but even on an emotional level Peter considered Ben Parker to stand in his father's place.

Which is why hearing such disappointment, such grief, in Ben Parker's voice froze Peter in his tracks.

Feeling quite like a lamb being taken to slaughter, Peter entered the living room where his uncle and aunt sat with sad and disappointed faces on the couch.

"Peter," his uncle finally began after deafening silence. "I just got a call from the Principal... about you assaulting one of your classmates and... breaking his nose."

Aunt May looked him. "It's not true, Peter, is it?"

That question alone rattled the boy. Had he even gone so far as to shake his elders' faith in him? "I-I... it's true," he spoke, timidly, and May palmed her face at that, as Ben's expression grew sterner.

"I did not raise a hooligan, Peter," Ben spoke softly, and Peter finally snapped that that, displacing all his guilt and shame into anger.

"No, you didn't. You raised a _wimp_!" Peter yelled, standing up.

"Peter!" Aunt May chided him, but Ben stood up at that as well.

"Mind your tone, young man," was all Ben said, sternly, but Peter refused to listen.

"He was my _friend_. He turned on me and Harry, and has been bullying me and my friends for five years. _Five years_ , I bore everything he threw at me because I didn't have the power to do anything about it!" Peter yelled. "Him and his goons. I walked in on them today bullying Cindy! Still, I didn't _start_ the fight, okay? But I had the power to do something about it, and I did, okay?!"

Hearing Peter's side of things, Ben relaxed somewhat. At least his brother's son wasn't turning into a lesser man; frustration of being victimised could get to anyone. But he needed to be taught a lesson, and one Ben Parker was adamant on teaching him.

It was the lesson Ray had taught Ben, after all. It was practically Peter's inheritance.

"And was it the right thing to do?"

That simple question took Peter by surprise, and he stopped, exasperated.

"What?"

"Peter, kids your age, they do things like this. Bullying, pranks, because that's what they are at this age: kids. But _you're_ not a kid anymore, are you Peter?" Ben explained, somehow maintaining a perfect balance between gentleness and strictness in his tone and voice. "You say you have power now, because you've grown up. I can see, standing face to face with you, that you're almost as tall as me now. You've grown into a fit, young man."

Peter looked down. "T-That's not what this is about..."

"But it _is_ , Peter," Ben interrupted. "Your father was your age, fifteen, when our parents died, Peter. I was only five years old then. He was hardly an adult himself; he had the power to leave me and fend for himself. It was a different kind of power, but it was power none-the-less. No one would've questioned a fifteen-year-old why he didn't want to take care of a toddler. But even at his age, he grew up then and there. He struggled, juggling his education, freelancing, privately tutoring little kids... but he somehow managed to raise enough money to get us both through until I could fend for myself."

Ben sat back down, but Peter remained standing, staring at his right foot.

"You're saying you had the power to do something about your friends being picked on, and you're right," Peter looked up at that. "But you also had the power to stop him without breaking his nose, Peter."

Peter looked back down. He felt guilty, he felt hollow and he felt ashamed. But he didn't want to admit any of that, not after all he had been through at Flash's hand. So, he felt all his guilt turning into anger, and rising in his chest.

"I was your father's responsibility, Peter, and he did all he could in his power to take care of me," Ben explained gently. "He knew I was because he was honest with himself, so he understood he was the only one I had left and he needed to be there for me. When we're honest, Peter, with ourselves and with others, we always find the answers we need, in our hearts. He found that with his power came a responsibility, and he lived up to it. Remember that, Peter."

Ben paused, hoping to let it sink in, before continuing. "Now ask yourself, Peter, and be honest with yourself. Was what you did to your classmate the right thing to do, the responsible thing to do?"

Peter knew it wasn't. Somehow, deep inside his heart, he just did. But he was not prepared to admit that, not right now.

"His father is a police officer. His parents wanted to press charges," May spoke up. "But Eugene called them off, saying he started it and it was his fault..."

"And even though I disagree with his bullying you in the first place, Peter, _that_ , what Eugene did, was the right thing to do. He took responsibility for starting the fight, and even though he had the power to retaliate legally, he convinced his parents to let go."

Hearing Flash Thompson of all people being praised for maturity and following his own father's ideals, by Uncle Ben and Aunt May no less, was the last straw.

Tears stinging his eyes, Peter shot back, "'Responsibility', huh?"

Ben grimaced. "Peter..."

"What about _me_? Where is Ray Parker now, Uncle Ben? Wasn't _I_ his 'responsibility'? He left me! Mom did too! And now you're telling me Flash Thompson, King of Jocks, follows my own father's ideals better than _I_ do?! Well, then, those ideals must suck as much as Flash then!"

As Ben saddened visibly, May's expression turned sour and she chastised, "How _dare_ you speak about your father like that, young man?!"

"H-He could've left the army or intelligence or whatever he was up to after I was born! But he didn't, he left me. And he left me _fatherless_! So w _hat_ 'responsibility'?!" Peter yelled, before turning around and storming out of the living room, slamming the door shut behind him and ignoring his elders' calls.

Ben sighed, getting up and grabbing his jacket and opening to door, as May sat down on the sofa, quite disturbed by all the shouting and fighting. It all felt so unnatural in their normally loving household.

"I'll go get him," Ben announced, and May nodded, before he exited the Parker Household.

* * *

 **Local Mart  
Down the Street**

Seething, Peter stomped into the grocery store in their locality. How dare they insinuate that _Flash_ of all people was responsible with the power he was given? It was almost stupid to think about. _'Be honest. Be responsible. These are all dead men's philosophies anyways!'_ Peter convinced himself, as he picked up a can of fruit from a shelf. He was going to eat by himself today, he wasn't going to go back home til late at night. He needed to blow off some steam before seeing his Uncle and Aunt again.

Billing his item at the counter and paying with the spare change he had, Peter was by the exit door when, through his vibration sense, Peter felt something behind him shift heavily and people started screaming a moment later. The tingling at the back of his head warned him of danger.

Turning around, Peter could see even from his distance a man pointing a gun at the woman at the billing counter.

His heart told me he should do something about it; he could.

But then all the crap he felt he had received that day came back full force, and Peter scowled.

"'Responsibility'," he scoffed, exiting the store.

He was a few steps away from the store when he heard the sound of gunfire.

He finally snapped out of his anger at that, turning around. _'Don't tell me that guy actually shot someone!'_

Suddenly, his stomach settled in a hollow pit. Had he gotten someone _killed_?! He could've stopped that man! Turning around, Peter saw the crook exiting the store with the money, running in the opposite direction from where he was standing.

Waves of guilt washed over him as he realised what he had allowed to happen. 'No, Uncle Ben was right, I can't let people **die** if I can stop it!' Acting quickly, Peter focused with his vibration sense, ensuring no one was around to see and, through the ground vibrations, feeling the man running away in the direction opposite the one he was facing. Instinctively judging the distance, Peter pulled back his sleeve.

A golden glob of webbing, tougher than steel, smacked into the man's legs and stuck them together. He fell forwards, face planting on the ground and getting knocked out on the spot, his gun falling from his hands.

Peter then ran back into the store he had left moments before. He had to get the weight off his conscience, to ensure that the crook _hadn't_ actually shot the woman at the billing counter, that it had just been some kind of aerial fire for intimidation purposes.

To his relief, as he walked in, he saw the woman was alive.

To his rising dread, however, he saw people at the mart huddling around the bleeding body of someone else.

Some whose face he couldn't see through the crowd, but whose clothes he recognised.

 _'N-No... NO!'_ he ran forwards. "Let me through, let me _through_!" _  
_  
Someone tried to stop him, "Kid, a man was shot-"

"THAT'S MY UNCLE!" Peter screamed, pushing through with his amazing strength once he had been near enough to finally see Ben's face. He was bleeding heavily, eyes only half-lid.

"Uncle Ben!" Peter screamed, tears falling from his eyes on his uncle's face. "Uncle Ben, what- _how-_ what are you doing her- you came after _me_?"

Ben, through the pain, smiled. "W-We're Parkers, boy... we stick together."

Sobbing hysterically. "Someone call an ambulance, _please_! Oh, what have **_I_** _done_?!"

"Peter," Ben whispered, silencing the boy. "Peter, I w-want... you to know that I forgive you... for everything. Don't anything weigh on your conscience after..." he gasped for air. "... after... I'm gone..."

"Uncle Ben, please don't say that!" Peter shushed him, holding his hand and sobbing heavily. "Y-Y-You're gonna be alright! This is- _I_ did this, I could've stopped that man _before_ he shot you!"

"'Before'... you mean you stopped him afterwards...?" Ben inquired in a weak voice, and Peter, sobbing, nodded, eliciting a weak smile from Ben.

"You... did the right thing... be honest... and you'll always find the way," Ben whispered his last words to his nephew. "... Be honest... and know that with great power, comes great responsibility... I'm proud of you, m-my s-son..."

Peter sobbed, seeing the life fading from his uncle's eyes and the power in his grip waning. "NO! Uncle Ben, please... please don't leave me... don't leave me... _fatherless again_!"

But it was no use.

"I-I'm so proud of you, m-my s-son..." Repeating those words, Benjamin Franklin Parker breathed his last.

* * *

 **Present Day, Manhattan  
At the side of the building over the alley where Kingpin's three goons were apprehended (see beginning of _Chapter 1_ )  
Peter Parker's POV**

Since that night, every night, I cry myself to sleep. How could I have done this to my own uncle? To my own father?

It had been raining that day, profusely, on the day of the funeral. Everyone had been there: Harry, Cindy, our neighbours the Watsons, some of the kids from school, including Gwen Stacy. Gwen's father was the police officer who had arrested uncle Ben's murderer, finding him mysteriously wrapped from his legs in a glob of impenetrable, golden webbing.

Even Flash Thompson of all people with his bandaged nose, had showed up with his parents, and patted my back, trying to comfort me in a strange, manly way. I had felt even more crap then, for behaving the way I had with him, and thinking the way I thought about him. Flash was a good person at heart, he just had a reputation to live up to as the star quarterback - a reputation of a bullying jock, but a reputation nonetheless. Uncle Ben had seen that goodness inside Flash, when I had been too blind to.

Despite all my jumping spider vision, I had been so blind as to get my own uncle killed.

I see the words on his grave stone everywhere I go, even today. They say:

 **Benjamin Franklin Parker  
Beloved husband and father  
 _'Be honest and be responsible, and God willing you'll find your way.'_  
1978-2018**

That crook, MacDonald Gargan, had been sentenced to life imprisonment. For the longest time, I wanted to do something I knew I would regret. I wanted to pay him a visit in his prison cell and... and take his life, the way he had taken my uncle's life. But I know that I deserve the blame as much as he did, and that still eats me up from the inside.

Uncle Ben told me he had forgiven me before he died. If that hadn't happened, I don't know how I could've lived with myself.

I feel so bad about _everything_ that I said to him, about my father. Richard Parker didn't leave me fatherless... he left me in the care of another father in his stead, a father much better than I had deserved.

A father who believed in me, who taught me how to be a man, and who taught me how to be _more_ than just a man.

Yes, I have the power to take Mac Gargan's life in revenge. But if I'm honest with myself, like Uncle Ben taught me, deep down inside I know what is and what is not the right thing to do. Taking Mac Gargan's life would make me no better than Mac Gargan himself.

No, I... I have been blessed with a great power...

My gaze follows the woman - not in a weird way - who had been assaulted by the three goons I'd wrapped up for the cops. I cannot help but smile as I see her with a cloth over her shoulders behind the police cars. A man holding a little girl approaches her, likely her husband, and she stands up and hugs him.

... and it's my responsibility to do the upright, the _honest_ thing with that power...

The woman kisses her daughter, and I see all of them, so relieved and so happy that the other is safe.

I'll make sure no crook ever gets away with his deed, and no child ever loses a parent the way I did, as long as I can do something about it, Uncle Ben.

I promise you that.

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	4. Spectacular, Part 1

**Author Note: Okay, here's the next chapter. I know a lot of readers are asking about pairings, so I'd just like to say that _pairings are undecided_. Three hundred chapters down the road an adult Peter could end up marrying anyone from Cindy to Mary Jane to the Black Widow. I'm focusing more on writing a good story than on romance, and this is my first time working on a major project like the Marvel universe (yes, this fanfic and any possible sequels and spin-offs are not limited to just _Spider-Man_ ) and I know it's far from perfect so please bear with me.**

 **Thank you to all the good fellows who reviewed. Keep at it.**

Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified _Nephila clavipes_ (a golden silk orb-weaver spider), boy genius and grade A nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighbourhood protector.

* * *

 **The Orb Weaver  
** **Book One _  
Chapter Four - Spectacular, Part 1_**

* * *

 **Peter's Room**

"Because you can't be a superhero without a utility belt!"

Declared one Peter Parker, currently dressed in blue shorts and an armless white vest, as he finished the final touches on his costume: he had modelled it after the golden silk-orb weaver, the spider that that bitten him. They were commonly seen being yellow and black in colour. The suit Peter had designed was also therefore pitch black, a tight-fitting bodysuit that allowed swift and easy movement, with yellow and gold contrasting in three areas: a giant, golden-yellow spider insignia covered the chest region almost entirely and extended over his shoulders onto his back; golden forearm bracelets; and a large, golden-yellow lenses meant to denote 'bug' eyes.

The 'utility belt' in question was, in fact, not a belt per se. Peter was referring to the golden forearm bracelets that he had just finished working on. They were, in fact, multi-compartment forearm gauntlets that were capable of many things.

Peter was a nerd, through and through, Star Wars and Batman being favourite franchises. That, and combined with naturally talented, genius mind, meant he could put together decent crime-fighting equipment even if he wasn't exactly a billionaire-heir-to-a-multinational-conglomerate-playboy.

Peter pressed a chamber on his bracelet, and a panel slid open, revealing a compartment underneath containing three cartridges containing what Peter called his 'web fluid'. Peter removed the golden-yellow concoction from its chamber, staring at it.

Peter had, over the past few weeks since he had begun his budding crime-fighting career, spent every public and private resource (read: his school's lab, the library and his microscope and attic) to study the organic webs his body naturally produced. They were every bit the webs of an orb weaver: five times as strong as steel, three times as strong as kevlar, heat and electrical conductor, hypoallergenic (hence easily usable as a bandage if Peter ever needed to stop a bleeding wound, for instance), and biodegradable, and 300% elastic. Yet, it was the structure of the fibres, and their chemical composition, that had interested the Boy Genius, and he had tried to artificially replicate them.

Modifying the formula of an artificial adhesive that Peter had himself created for a high school science project last year (he had gotten first prize, of course, followed by another beating from Flash), Peter had managed to create what he called 'web fluid', its molecular structure inspired by and mimicking the triple helix arrangement of his own natural, organic webbing.

The web fluid could not be used to spin an orb web of the same natural strength - or beauty, or perfection - that he could do out of pure programmed instinct with the spinnerets in his arms. Yet, the real benefit of the web fluid was that unlike his organic webbing, the web fluid could be chemically modified.

The result?

One: "Impact Webbing", which released tendrils upon impact and encased the target of choice in a super-strong cocoon; and two, "Explosive Web Bullets", like small grenades, had been made possible with careful addition of a little toluene into the adhesive formula. These two were what Peter had finished working on, but the possibilities were endless, only limited by Peter's own imagination.

"Batarangs are _so_ last century," Peter grinned, placing the web cartridge that contained his web fluid back in its panel.

The other invention Peter had been finished during the past month had been what he called his 'spider-tracer'; barely ten millimetres in diameter, and assembled from Aunt May's old toaster. The tracers filled the second - of three - panels in each of his bracelets. The third compartment in his right bracelet contained space for small equipment he had to carry: his smartphone could snugly fit inside. The third compartment in his left bracelet was empty, free space available to carry anything - such as forensic evidence - from a crime seen.

"OhWowThisIsSo _ **Cool**_!" Peter yelled in delight, unable to keep his own amazement at the ultra-cool superhero arsenal he had assembled inside.

"Peter, is that you? Why are you shouting, everything alright?" Aunt May's voice carried up the stairs into his room.

"I'm fine, Aunt May!"

Peter, ensuring his door was locked, then turned back to the costume, placing the bracelets on his working table and picking up his bodysuit and spreading it out on on the bed.

"Alright, let's take you out for a spin!"

The lifeless costume simply stared back at him, wordlessly, with its expressionless yellow eyes.

"Get it? Spin?! Because, I can, ya know... _webs_!?"

The costume was, understandably, not amused.

Peter hung his head, "Yeah, I... I know, Parker. You - I - need to stop talking to... myself."

* * *

 **Later  
Random Skyscraper  
** **Upper Manhattan, New York City**

It being Sunday, meaning not a school day, Peter had managed to slip by Aunt May without much effort. Here the young fifteen-year-old was, atop one of the tallest buildings in the city, in full costume, sans mask, which was billowing in the wind as it dangled by his side held in his right hand.

His fear of heights was practically nonexistent at this point.

"Alright, I hope this works," Peter donned the mask, his naturally gifted visual field soon becoming laced with texts from an HUD display.

That had been Peter's other science project during the past month. See, his suit wasn't _just_ a suit.

"Alright, uh... all systems online," immediately the HUD turned a slight shade of yellow, with light, translucent yellow-tinted text flashing all across Peter's vision.

YODA, a text-based AI that Peter had designed, had been upgraded. Now, he was a she, and her name was AHSOKA. Because, honestly, listening to Yoda-speak got really old really fast once Peter had developed the audio driver and turned it into a multi-functional software program.

 _'Hey Skyguy.'_

Peter smiled as he heard the AI speak in his head for the very first time in costume, the voice of a young girl almost identical to that of a certain fictional character. She displayed his vitals and his location on a small map of New York in one corner of his visual field, and a small targeting icon - a circle giving off eight 'legs', resembling a spider - that jumped around, locking onto different buildings in front of him and giving him a basic read-out such as the name of the building, any information on the owner, plus other information available on Google Maps.

 _'I know you already know this, but I'm programmed to introduce myself every time I come online on a new system, so here goes:_ _I'm your Padawan personal assistant, a virtual artificial intelligence and_ _multifunctional software program. My designated project title is "_ _Spider Net-Interfacing Programmed Software" or "SNIPS" for short, and my name is Ahsoka Tano. I've been designed by you, Jedi Master Peter Parker, to assist you with a variety of tasks as best as I can...'_ a digital clock appeared on the heads-up display, followed by a calender, _'24 hours a Galactic Standard Day, seven days a Galactic Standard Week. Importing personal preferences from desktop interface now. Import complete.'_

Peter was so giddy he began to feel nauseous, if that was humanly possible. If it wasn't humanly possible, was it spiderly possible, he wondered? Oh, who cared if it was possible or not, she **worked**! She worked like a friggin' **charm**!

 _'I'm at your service, Master Parker. I assume this is where the fun begins?'_

"Yeah, Ahsoka," Peter grinned giddily behind his mask. "This is where the fun begins... MAN I ALWAYS WANTED TO SAY THAT, THIS IS SO FRIGGIN' COOL!"  
 _  
'Language, Master Parker,'_ Ahsoka chided.

Peter grinned behind the mask, before crouching down on all fours at the edge of the building. "Sorry, Aunt May."

After a few moments, Peter added, "And Ahsoka, don't call me by my name when in costume; I'll upload you to my smartphone next so we can remain in-touch even when I'm not crimefighting. But still, even then, just call me Peter... 'Master Parker' doesn't really have the same ring to it as 'Master Skywalker', unfortunately."

 _'Then what should I call you when you're your alter-ego, Skyguy? You need a call sign. Unless, you prefer 'Skyguy' full-time. You do swing around the New York skyline.'_

Peter blinked behind his yellow lenses. A call sign? A superhero name? Oh... crap. He had spend the past month discovering his powers and training them, researching on spiders, designing strange new equipment and AIs, but he had forgotten to think of a name!

"Ugh...!" Peter smacked his forehead.

 _'Everything alright? Your heart rate has gone up to 89 beats per minute,'_ Ahsoka sounded worried.

"It's... I just... ugh, think of a cool superhero name for me, okay, Ahsoka? Something that, understandably, has to do with spiders and no, it cannot be linked to the Star Wars franchise," that, said, the costumed Peter Parker leapt off the building, clenching his hand into a fist to shoot his golden organic web-line that attached to a building, and he swung over the rooftops, still too high and too fast for anyone down the street to notice him as anything more than a black blur.

 _'Aww... 'cause I was gonna suggest 'Admiral Trench','_ Ahsoka quipped.

"Howdy, har-har," Peter mocked her as he somersaulted off a web-line onto another one, searching from crime to stop.

In the left lower corner of his heads-up display Ahsoka pulled up files of different 'giant spider' and 'giant golden spider web' sightings around New York over the past month, crooks and criminals being mysteriously stopped by this strange creature. News reports, blurred images from phone cameras, and rather colourful remarks of one prominent newspaper titled the Daily Bugle. _'Did you know you were an internet sensation? You already have several callsigns and nicknames across multiple blogs, newspapers and websites. The Bugle in particular has dubbed you: 'Freak of Nature', 'Menace', 'Web-Head', 'Golden Silk Monster', 'Alien Arachnid', 'Faceless Cockroach', 'The-''_

"Not. _Helping_. Ahsoka!" Peter said through gritted teeth, obviously ticked off at all the bad press he was getting. "What the heck do cockroaches have to do spider webs anyways?"

 _'Beats me,'_ Peter could almost imagine a small image of the actual character Ahsoka Tano shrugging in his mind as she said that. _'Here's something: a social media activist by the name of Carlie Cooper has been tweeting about you under hashtag '#TheMysteriousOrb_ _Weaver'.'_

Peter paused mid-swing in shock, before quickly spinning another web-line to ensure he wasn't the 'Splashed-on-the-Pavement' Orb Weaver and resuming his patrol. "That... is pretty good, I mean, really cool!... But, I dunno, it's a bit too 'Batman'-like, you know, dark?"

 _'What? 'Batman-like'? Lord Vader, are you for real? You're dressed in a creepy black jumpsuit, modelled after a freaky animal, intent on putting 'the superstitious and cowardly lot' out of business in one of the largest and most densely populated cities of the world. Not to mention your Aunt has called your room a 'cave' about three million times since I was 'born' two weeks ago. Now, where have I heard all that before, I wonder?'_

"Trouble," he interrupted her. Peter's 'spider senses' - what he had dubbed the sum total of his superhuman senses including his highly enhanced sight, vibration sense and smell, plus his uncanny ability to precognitively sense danger - had put him on high alert, as the black-clad vigilante swung up to and perched on a rooftop. "... I'll think about it, but for now, whoa... would you look at _that_ , Snips..."

The spider-shaped targeting icon focused on a burning building a few buildings away from the rooftop he was perched on. Immediately, Ahsoka browsed through the internet and every publicly available detail of that building flashed in the form yellow translucent letters and images on Peter's heads-up display, while Peter saw the last of a group of firefighters escape the building before a burning piece of debris crashed down, blocking the only entrance door shut.

"It appears the firefighters have done most of the work, but I don't suppose you could peak in and tell me if there are any people still trapped inside?" Peter inquired, nervous and hesitant. He had never gone into a burning building before.

 _'I'm not Kara Zor-El, so no I don't have X-ray vision.'  
_  
"Figures..." Peter sighed, before a lightbulb lit up in his head. "Wait, 'X-ray vision', of course. My vibration sense, I was so... I forgot about that," the black-clad vigilante shot a web-line before swinging over to the burning building enshrouded in thick, black fumes, and landing on the not-burnt-yet roof.  
 _  
'Didn't know you could do that. Of course, the spider is the_ _second most vibration-sensitive organism, topped only by the cockroach... hey maybe that's what the guys at the Bugle had in mind. Sorry Skyguy,_ _I'll remind you myself next time.'_

The costumed Peter ignored Ahsoka's apology as he focused with his eyes closed, sensing the vibrations of the entire building and everyone inside.

"I count three living people, two on the seventh floor and one on the tenth," Peter added, while Ahsoka quickly displayed the schematics of floors on Peter's HUD.

 _'Alright Spidey, let's do this!'_

"'Spidey'?"

 _'Do you prefer 'Artooie'?'_

'Spidey' sighed and shook his head. He then shot a golden web-line at the edge of the building. He tugged on it with full strength and thereby launching himself into the air before swinging around downwards and straight through the broken and scorched windows of the seventh floor.

* * *

 **Inside the** **Apartment Complex**

Inside, the costumed Peter Parker, going by the temporary alias of 'Spidey', quickly sprinted away from his entrance towards where he detected the two people to be. His HUD displayed the rise in temperature even as he felt himself sweating profusely under his suit. "Snips, add reminder: consider building a fire-proof suit."

 _'I don't think you're gonna find the materials for that at a convenience store, Skyguy, but okay,'_ Ahsoka replied. _'Watch out for debris.'_

Peter's spider senses picked up the flaming chunks of ceiling falling on top of him even before Ahsoka's warning, and he athletically moved aside, before kicking a wall down to enter a burnt room. The sounds of coughing and screaming filled his ears.

"Help, somebody help us!" It was a little girl, and the other person a firefighter who had tried to rescue her but also become trapped. The two stilled at the sight of him.

"What the heck are you?!" the firefighter shouted, holding the little girl closer.

"I'm here to help, come on, I'll get you out!" Spidey declared, stretching out his hand, but the two hesitated. Only for a moment, though, as the another piece of burning debris fell into the room beside the two from above them, eliciting a frightened scream from the crying, soot-covered girl.

"Come on!" Spidey called again.

No longer hesitant, the firefighter pushed the girl in his direction and Peter picked her up on his left shoulder effortlessly before holding out his hand again for the firefighter to take, which he did.

* * *

 **Outside the** **Apartment Complex**

"Please you have to go back, my daughter's in there!" A man from the crowd of evacuees shouted at one of the firefighters, but was being held back by the rest. "Please, I beg you!"

"We got a man trapped in there too, sir, but there's no way back in, the entrance's sealed shut!" the firefighter replied, clearly shaken himself.

"Who's still in?" the firefighter next to him asked.

"Jameson," the first one replied.

"Sarah!" the girl's father yelled as he saw a black blur jump out of the windows of the seventh floor, his arms slung around both his daughter and the firefighter. The blur moved in a way they couldn't really understand, before thrusting his hand forward and somehow spanning a giant golden web just over their heads. The web acted as a trampoline spanning the burning building and two adjacent ones.

The blur landed on the web safely, and the crowd gasped to see a man dressed in a black-and-gold costume with a spider insignia on it. Spidey left John Jameson, the firefighter and the seven-year-old, Sarah, safely on the soft, silken material. Then, much to everyone's shock and amazement, he turned around and leapt over fifty feet straight into the air, before flipping around once, shooting another web-line and launching himself up. He crashed through the windows of what appeared to be the tenth floor, disappearing back into the black fumes.

"Is that Iron Man?!"

"No, Iron Man's much bigger, I've seen him up close!"

"Who _is_ that?!"

"It's that golden web guy, he's all over Facebook!"

"Would you look at that jump? He's amazing!"

"He's no eight-legged alien spider monster, he's just a man in tights!"

"He's spectacular!"

* * *

 **Inside the Apartment Complex**

"Someone... *cough* please... help me..."

A brunette, sixteen years old, coughed as the smoke filled her lungs, a trail of dried tears marking her face from her brilliant hazel eyes to below her jaws. Her fair skin was covered with black soot as she coughed. She held her brown jacket in her hand, which she had taken off when it had become too hot for her to bear, leaving her in a black shirt and grey pants, and now she was using the jacket to fan the approaching flames away from her.

"Is there anyone there?" she rasped out again, before breaking into another coughing fit.

The tears in her eyes freshened, but the heat and smoke had nothing to do with her tears. She was going to die; and maybe that was fitting. Her fourth set of foster parents had already perished in the fire that had broken out in this apartment complex; she only knew them for a week, and she had actually begun to like them before this tragedy had struck.

Trouble seemed to follow her everywhere. Since the very day of her birth.

The reason for her tears, of course, was the horrific sight of her foster parents' burning corpses. That, and the knowledge that she was going to be joining them soon. She was going to die not even knowing who her real parents were, and whether they had ever loved her or they really had discarded her like yesterday's trash. The thought of dying, without knowing the truth, without ever getting to know if she had ever been wanted or not, was what had brought tears to her eyes.

She sat back against the wall as the flames consumed the carpet before her, hugging her knees to herself as she began to sob, her jacket still in her hand.

 _'So, this is it...'_ she thought, a moment before a black-gloved hand broke through the wall behind her, and she screamed, alarmed, leaping back onto her feet.

"Move back, I'm gonna kick the wall down!" a voice came through the hole as the hand disappeared back to the other side.

Not really having any other option, the brunette obeyed, moving away from the wall and as near to the approaching flames as she could without getting herself burnt. A moment later, the entire wall was smashed into pieces by a single kick from a black-costumed man standing who was revealed to be on the other side. In one swift movement, the man shot what appeared to be a silken thread, gold in colour, which stuck to the brunette's abdomen before pulling her straight into his arms.

"Hold tight!" he declared, and for her part the girl couldn't believe what she was seeing, as the man held her bridal style before running straight towards the window

"AAH!" she screamed as he crashed through the glass, back-first to avoid any shards hitting her, and then they began their ten-storey descent. Throughout, the girl stared, wide-eyed, once at her rescuer, at his gold bug-eyed lenses and the golden spider insignia, and then around and below her, the buildings moving up higher as the road below came nearer.

She had survived being burnt alive, but for a moment she thought she was going to be splattered mess on the ground below when her rescuer suddenly moved her, shifting her from bridal style to holding her with his left arm under her shoulders, before he flipped in mid-air, shot a silken thread with his free right hand and broke the fall.

The brunette gasped as the man swung, kind of like Tarzan but slowly and gracefully, and she felt the cool air breeze against her skin in contrast to smoke and soot she had been breathing in moments prior.

He then landed, quickly lowering her to stand onto her feet in the midst of the staring and whispering crowd. She stepped back out of reflex, staring at the black-costumed man, as the medics approached her from the other side.

"That's all of them!" Peter said, turning to the firefighters and nodding at the grateful look he received from Jameson, the one he had rescued, who along with the girl had gotten out of his web-trampoline.

"Who _are_ you?" The brunette asked, and Peter turned his attention back to her.

"I'm, uh..." Peter stepped back a bit, suddenly realising the whole crowd was staring at him. He turned to the right and the left, everywhere: people with their smartphones and DSLRs, and the ever-relentless media itself; reporters flagged by professional cameramen, armed with mikes and endless questions. This was it; no more hiding in the shadows. He was public now, for the whole world to see and hear.

"I'm j-just, a... friendly neighbourhood, sorta-"

"You're a superhero, aren't you?" the brunette asked again, Peter's attention returning to her. "You have powers... oh wow, you saved my life! This is amazing! What's your name? You can make webs-like a-a man-sized spider? A _Spider-Man_?"

 _"Spider-Man? Now there's the perfect call sign for you, Master,"_ said Ahsoka, though no one heard her of course except Peter, who was simply a deer caught in front of headlights now. Without a word, 'Spider-Man' turned around and leapt into the air, the girl staring after him with saucer-esque eyes as she saw how far he had jumped, before flipping in the air and disappearing into the streets. A firefighter behind her whistled at the spectacular display of agility.

"No, wait, _**please**_!" Peter heard the brunette yelling behind him, but he did not stop, disappearing amidst the skyscrapers.

* * *

 **CNN _  
_**

 _'Good morning New York City, this is **Sally Floyd** bringing you the news show, 'Views On News'. The story of the day: the mysterious vigilante that New Yorkers themselves have started to call, among many other names: "the Spectacular **Spider-Man** ", a name coined by none other than a teenage girl he himself rescued. The bizarre new addition to the superhuman gallery was, til this fine Sunday morning, believed to be an urban myth, and any coverage on him was confined to the realm of social media and conspiracy blogs, despite the fact that the police themselves have reported a significant 40% decrease in the petty crime rate over the past two months, all associated with the appearance of mysterious, giant golden orb webs and apprehended criminals at various busted crime scenes. But today, the whole world saw him rescue three trapped civilians - including a firefighter, Mr John Jameson - from the fire that engulfed the Manfredi Apartments building in Upper Manhattan. For discussion on this international hot topic, among others, joining us is senior anchor and investigative journalist, **Dr. Ned Leeds**. Hello, Dr. Leeds.'  
_

 _'Hey Sally, glad to be here with you today, and greetings to all our viewers.'_

 _'So_ _Dr. Leeds_ _. The question on the tongue of every citizen of New York: **what is the Spider-Man**? Is he a hero, a villain, a vigilante? Is he just a well-trained athlete, or does he have actual superpowers? Is he an alien? Is he getting tech from Mr Stark? Is he a new Captain America?'_

 _'He's **not** getting tech from Stark... I talked to Tony, and, he has no clue who this guy is and, frankly, he said to me that he's doesn't even care as long he's not a threat to American or global security. As for ol' Cap, no one's seen him for 75 years, and no one's ever been able to figure out what exactly Erskine put in that magic potion of his. And no athlete, no matter how well-trained, could pull off a jump that high.'_

 _'So would it be safe to say that Spider-Man is an alien? Could he be actual tangible proof of extraterrestrial life?'_

 _'Well, Sally, let's just be happy he isn't an eight-legged man-eating monster the way certain press houses were claiming him to be. We should focus on the fact that he called himself 'friendly neighbourhood' before shying away from the young lady he had rescued, and considering the tangible fall in the crime rate you pointed out, he seems to be on our side...'  
_

* * *

 **The Daily Bugle  
** **J. Jonah Jameson's Office**

"'CERTAIN PRESS HOUSES'?! HOW DARE YOU CALL ME OUT ON INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION, YOU CHEAPSKATE LEEDS! I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A SILVER PLATTER, YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING, BACKSTABBING-"

"Calm down, JJ," Joe Robertson was trying - and failing - to calm his boss and editor-in-chief of the Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson down, but the man was out for blood. Not only had his son almost died this morning, but J. Jonah Jameson was forced to acknowledge that the 'Man-Eating Freak of Nature' - now being called Spider-Man - was the only reason that his son was alive. That, and the fact that rival media companies were using this as an opportunity to point fingers at the Bugle for their misleading and exaggerated coverage of the issue for the past two months was adding spice - not salt, spice - to Jameson's bleeding wounds.

"WHERE WAS CNN FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS WHEN WE WERE THE ONLY ONES REPORTING ON THE APPEARANCE OF GIANT WEBS IN NEW YORK'S ALLEYS, HUH!?"

"JJ, please-"

Jameson pressed the intercom button.

"MISS BRANT, GET IN HERE!"

A frightened scream followed by the sounds of a mess being made and then quickly cleaned up were heard outside the office as Joe Robertson pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Yes, sir?" The shoulder-length haired brunette, Betty Brant, Jameson's secretary, snuck her face in through the door moments after.

"WHY DON'T WE HAVE A CLEAR PICTURE OF THE WALL-CRAWLING ARACHNID ALREADY!? HE WAS STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD FOR A GOOD TWO MINUTES AFTER HE ALMOST KILLED MY SON AND THOSE TWO GIRLS IN THE BURNING BUILDING!"

"He didn't try to kill them, Jonah, he saved them," Joe corrected, knowing full well that his words would fall on deaf ears.

"Because you fired Brock two days ago. You fired Sebastian a week prior, and Edwards about a month before that. We don't have any photographers left, sir," Betty supplied the answer, as helpfully as she could.

"ARRRRGH...!"

* * *

 **Norman Osborn's Office**

The billionaire switched off the LED on his wall and leaned back in his seat, fingers intertwined under his chin in deep thought.

Norman Osborn was many things, a man of a million vices that he arrogantly subscribed to. But if there was one thing he was not: it was a fool. It was no coincidence that the first reported sightings of the Spider-Man had begun two months ago, even if he came under the public eye just this morning. Two months ago was when his prototype super spider had somehow magically escaped confinement, the very same day he had someone literally flushed down the toilet for an act of corporate espionage.

A smile slowly etched its way across Osborn's face, slowly enlarging into a grin and then he cackled.

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

He laughed; madly, maniacally and wildly. He had succeeded! He had created a super soldier, and what a spectacular one it was!

Now he just needed to get the giant bug on a dissection table.

Norman pressed a button under his desk, a small 'buzz' sounding in response. "Get Schultz in my office, now!"

 _"Yes, Mr Osborn."_

* * *

 **Next Day  
After School**

"What do you think, Cin?" Peter asked as the him and Cindy stepped off the bus. Cindy's house was not far from Peter's, and so they often got off the bus together. Harry never joined them on the bus - his driver came to pick him up in his private limo as soon as school ended.

"About?" she asked, turning to glance at her best friend and long-time crush as he walked to her left.

Peter showed her his smartphone screen, the news about 'The Spectacular Spider-Man' on the CNN app.

"About the Spider-Man? I don't know," Cindy paused, before adding. "We don't know anything about him, really. We don't know what he is, if he's really a friend... I hope he doesn't have alien relatives that decide to invade the Earth looking for him."

Peter chortled. "You think Spider-Man is an alien?"

Cin smiled back. "What, did he tell you he isn't?"

Peter fell silent at that. Should he tell Cin? He wanted to, he really wanted to tell _someone_. It was too big a burden to keep it just on his own shoulders, but who knows how many enemies he may have now that the whole world knew about him. If crime-fighting was anything in real life like it was in the comics, he would soon end up amassing his very own rogues' gallery. He didn't want Cindy to get caught up in all this.

No, he couldn't tell her.

"Pete?"

"Huh?" Peter snapped out of his reverie, looking at Cindy, who was staring at him worriedly.

"You blanked out... we're at your place," she supplied, and Peter turned his head and sure enough, there was his front door. "Is everything alright, Peter? You're acting strange."

"Huh? Oh, no! I mean- yes, everything's fine!" Peter stumbled with words for a few moments, before sighing. "Sorry, just-thinking about... never mind. I guess this is where we part?"

Cindy smiled, before waving. "See ya tomorrow, Petey."

"Wait, why don't you stay over for a while?" He invited, as was courtesy.

Cindy's smile widened, "I'd love to Peter... I really would but, I need to help Dad out with something; maybe tomorrow," she gave a small wave before continuing her trek towards her own house which was on the other side of the street. The Parkers and the Moons weren't _exactly_ neighbours, but they were in the same neighborhood.

"Sure thing," Peter waved at her as she left before pulling out the spare key from his pocket, unlocking the door and entering his house. Time to download Ahsoka into his smartphone, and then he would go out patrolling for the night. Tonight, Peter finally planned to do something big: tonight, he was going to pay Harry's dad's company a visit, and figure out what illegal and unethical experiments the creepy guy was really up to in there, and what his mother had to do with any of it.

Peter Parker wanted answers. The Spider-Man was going to get them.

* * *

 ** _The Orb Weaver: Book One,_ will be back in a moment.  
**

* * *

 **Character Profile**

 **Name: Peter Benjamin Parker**

 **Alias(es): The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Mysterious Orb Weaver, Spidey, Menace, Freak of Nature, Lord Vader, Skyguy, Puny Parker  
**

 **Age: 15  
**

 **Relatives: Richard Lawrence Parker (father, presumed deceased); Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker (mother, presumed deceased); Teresa Natalia Parker (sister, presumed deceased); Benjamin Franklin Parker (paternal uncle, confirmed deceased); May Reilly-Parker (paternal aunt-in-law)  
**

Powers: **Bitten by a genetically-modified** _Nephila clavipes_ **enhanced with Viridiserum (an attempt at re-engineering the Super Soldier Serum), Peter has the proportionate powers of a spider including superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, equilibrium, wall-crawling. His powers also include enhanced senses ("spider senses") including superhuman sight, smell, vibration sense, and a precognitive danger sense. He can also produce organic golden webbing from spinnerets in his wrists, and has the ability inflict a 'Venom', or a potent neurotoxin through microscopic hair in his fingertips should they come into contact with the skin of a target.**

 **Abilities:** **Despite being disregarded by most of his peers for his nerdy and geeky nature, Peter Parker is a prodigy, young but of various talents. Foremost of them, however, is his genius-level intellect, being perhaps the single most intelligent boy of his age group. It would not be wrong to call him the Reed Richards, Bruce Banner or Tony Stark of his generation. He is especially talented in both mechanical engineering and biochemistry, and has an uncanny ability to think on his feet.  
**

* * *

 **The Spider Stinger  
(Post-credits scene)**

"Aunt May, I'm home!" Peter called, as he entered the house and closed the door shut behind him.

"Oh, good! Welcome home, Pete; Daisy's been waiting for over half an hour, she's in your room," May said as she came out of the kitchen, before pointing up the stairs to signal that he should go up.

"Sure, I'll just go up and meet-" Peter did a double-take. "Wait, what? D-Daisy? 'D-Daisy' is in... my room?"

May smiled. "She's a really sweet girl, I gotta admit Peter. I'm surprised you've never mentioned her before, but she said you two were friends. I hope that's not..." May coughed, before giving a smile not unlike Emperor Palpatine's, "... _all_ you two are? Because if you're more, then you have my blessing."

Peter, suddenly white as a ghost, did not answer. Instead, he scrambled and shot up the stairs as fast as he could which was - to May's shock, quite fast. Thing is: he had no idea who the heck 'Daisy' was and why she was in his room, but his costume was in his room, under his bed, where Aunt May never looked but if anyone else decided to poke around...

Peter slammed the door open, panting slightly, eyes wide and a shocked expression on his face. He recognized the girl instantaneously, it was the teenaged brunette he had rescued from the fire yesterday, she was sitting on his desk, his Spider-Man mask in her right hand and Ahsoka was online on his desktop computer.

Peter's jaw hung low as he stared at her. "Wha-wha-wha...?"

The girl - Daisy - bobbed her brown-haired head towards him to glance at him, before smiling, waving in greeting and then pointing at his computer with her other hand.

"You must be Peter! Hi! I wanted to thank you for saving me from becoming a barbecued platter yesterday! But, seriously, your AI, Ahsoka? She's pretty cool and all but she was kinda useless... unless you desperately needed someone to just monitor your vitals, browse the internet and just talk to you. I spent the past half hour modifying her: she's _totally_ encrypted and secure now. I just hacked into the Pentagon with her and none of them could track it back here. They're still looking for us in Samoa. Isn't that _neat_?"

She grinned ear-to-ear at that, clearly proud of her accomplishment.

"Wha-? how-? I-?" were the magnificent three words that somehow escaped Peter Benjamin Parker's throat before he fell face-first on the floor, having fainted.

Daisy winced at the loud _thud,_ scratching the back of her head. "Oookay... way to go Daze, _brilliant_ first impression..."

"What is that sound?! Everything alright up there?!" May's voice carried up the stairs.

Daisy nervously sighed. "W-We're fine, May! Peter just... uh, couldn't _believe_ I came over!"

May's voice carried up the stairs again. "Well, come down for dinner in an hour, you two, we're having meatloaf!"

Daisy walked over to the unconscious Peter, rolling him onto his back, before picking him up by the shoulders and dragging him inside the room. She locked the door behind her and leaned with her back against it as she stared at the Knocked-Out Spectacular Spider-Man at her feet.

"An hour... right, just enough time to explain everything," Daisy mumbled to herself, palming her face.

* * *

 **Reviews requested. Kudos to anyone who can figure out who Daisy is: she's not an OC, so it's not that hard.**  
 **End of line.**


	5. Spectacular, Part 2

**Author Note: Congratulations to St0rmRid3r who correctly guessed who Daisy was. I'm surprised the rest of you didn't figure it out, I gave way too many hints, even the first name. Though she does not have any superpowers yet, she's based on the MCU version of her character from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., only younger. Believe it or not MCU Daisy is my favourite female Marvel character (if not overall favourite female fictional character), so she's a central part of this story. She may become (one of) Peter's love interest(s), and it would certainly be a unique pairing because I've seen very few proper Spider-Man/Quake stories. But like I said, romance is not a central theme of this story.**

 **NekoElder suggested that I should go with 'Orb Weaver' for Peter's alias instead of the obviously universal 'Spider-Man'. I've put up a Poll on my profile that is meant to remain up until Book One ends, and I'd like all of you to vote on whether you'd like me to stick with 'Spider-Man' or go for the newer 'Orb Weaver'.**

 **Thank you to all the good fellows who reviewed. Keep at it.**

Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified _Nephila clavipes_ (a golden silk orb-weaver spider), boy genius and grade A nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighborhood protector.

* * *

 **The Orb Weaver  
** **Book One _  
Chapter Four - Spectacular, Part 2_**

* * *

Dreams about giant spiders and golden webs ended rather abruptly, the webs being destroyed by an all-submerging tsunami, a gigantic wave of water that devoured everything in its path and Peter Parker woke up screaming and wet.

Through the shock and the constant shivering, his eyes landed on the brunette who had a glass of water in her hand and was smiling down innocently at him, before giving another wave.

"Hi. Again."

Despite the cold wetness, Peter was instantly on his feet, and snatched the glass of water away from her faster than her eyes could track. "Who _are_ you and how did you know who I am?! How did you find me?!"

Needless to say, Peter was pissed, if his murderous expression was anything to go way.

This was a horrifically low blow for Peter. He was thinking that he had blown the whole secret identity thing on the very first day he went public: if this girl could track him down, what about the authorities? What if the NYPD showed up at Aunt May's house and arrested him for vigilantism, interfering in police business and unwarranted destruction of property? Or... worse, what if 'they' showed up and made him disappear, never to be heard from again? There was always a 'they', even if no one knew who 'they' really were, but Peter was not naive enough to think that 'they' were just a conspiracy theory.

Not on this planet, no sir-e, Bob.

"Okay, first of all, chill. I'm not with some evil terrorist organisation or anything..." she paused, before pointing her thumb back at his desktop, "... even though I _did_ just hack into the Pentagon from your room..." she paused again, before continuing. "... but that was just to show you what I can do, how I can help you, you know, because I don't have any superpowers, though that..." she pointed back at his desktop, "... is kinda like my superpower, but it's not really super... or a power, but what I mean to say is, I can do-"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Peter sighed and raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Take a deep breath, and explain, _slowly_."

Daisy breathed in and out heavily before pointing at his bed. "Can I... can I sit down?"

Peter rolled his eyes and nodded. She came into his room and messed with his stuff without his permission and then needed it to sit on his bed?

Daisy sat, remained silent for a few minutes, before looking back up at Peter again. Peter got a proper look at her this time: heart-shaped face, dark brown hair, hazel eyes but with epicanthic folds denoting an Asian heritage, but she was certainly not completely Asian - spending so much time around Cindy had made Peter kind of an expert on that - so Daisy was probably of mixed descent.

"You know, you're really cute, but that weird creepy murderous look that you just looked at me with really makes you look like some kind of apex predator."

Peter, being a fifteen year old boy still, despite all the physical 'enhancements' that the spider-bite had left him with, was instantaneously disarmed by the fact that a girl about his age was sitting on his bed and calling him 'cute'.

Face turning red, he took a step back in shock, hands raised again. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, it's, uh..."

"No, no, it's okay, it's my fault! I..." Daisy took a deep breath again. "Let... me explain. I... you're Peter Parker. My name is Daisy Johnson, and that's about the only thing I know about myself. I... I'm with this group... actually, I _was_ with this group, called the 'Rising Tide'... we..."

"I know about them," realization dawned on Peter's face. "They're an international organisation of 'hacktivists': computer experts, master hackers..."

"Yep, that's us. You've probably heard about all the 'top secret-classified' stuff we broke to the public... the existence of S.H.I.E.L.D., that Iron Man was Tony Stark - before he went public with it-"

"No!" Peter exclaimed, alarmed as he moved over and suddenly grabbed Daisy's shoulders as she sat on his bed. "You _cannot_ tell anyone who I am! _Please_! I'm not a rich billionaire, I don't have an Iron Legion at my disposal! My aunt, my friends, they'll be in danger if-if I'm found out-"

"Hey, relax!" Daisy grabbed his hands and squeezed, and that somehow managed to comfort Peter. There was something about Daisy that was eerily comforting; she just seemed so... trustworthy, for some reason. "I won't tell- no one knows, about you, okay? No one except me. I did this on my own, the 'Rising Tide' was not involved... th-the heads of that group were actually apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. not long after we broke the Iron Man thing... they let me off because I was still a minor - this was three years ago, I was thirteen. I'm not with them, not anymore."

Peter released her shoulders and plopped down, tiredly, opposite her on his bed, one knee on it and one hanging off the side. His expression conveyed something along the lines of 'what the heck have I gotten myself into'?

"Look, listen to me," she placed her hand on his knee and once again squeezed, and for some reason Peter found herself trusting her. She seemed so genuine. "I may not be with the Rising Tide, but when I was, they called me 'the single greatest hacking prodigy we've ever seen'... yes, I'm not tooting my own horn, they said that..." she paused, flailing her hand around while thinking, "... okay maybe only one guy... said that, and he was the guy who taught me everything I know, so he was probably exaggerating to make his superiors happy, and he kinda tried to hit on me, which is really creepy because I was thirteen and he was, like, seventeen..."

Peter raised an incredulous eyebrow.

Daisy shook her head before looking back at Peter. "But that's the point: I was _thirteen_ then! I've never let my skills rust since the group was taken in, I'm much better now than I was then, and I hacked into the freakin' Kremlin for them, Peter!"

Peter stared at her, before smirking, and pointing behind him. "... And you hacked into the Pentagon, just now, from my room, using my AI?"

Daisy bobbed her head up and down enthusiastically, smiling broadly.

Peter scoffed, then laughed slowly before shaking his head. "I... why I should I believe you? How do I know you're not just some weirdo..."

Daisy sighed, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a smartphone. She ran her fingers over it a few times, before showing Peter the screen.

"Oh, my goodness..." Peter's jaw hung open - what he saw was the video feed from AHSOKA: everything his suit had seen, said, and searched for on the internet since he had activated her yesterday til the end of saving those three civilians from that building.

"T-That's how you found me, you hacked into my suit?!"

Daisy gave him a playful smile. "And learned everything there was to know about the one who had designed it. Like I said before you pulled your whole Jedi fainting trick on me, _Master Parker_ ," Peter flinched at that, "Your AI is brilliantly designed, and I'm amazed that you made her given the limited resources you have, but she had no security whatsoever beyond a basic Firewall... You're not a computer software expert, but I am. Yeah, I hacked into her, but while I was waiting for you to show up I upgraded AHSOKA... I can say with confidence that no one - except me of course - can ever hack her ever again. I also upgraded her functionally... she'll give Iron Man's JARVIS a run for his money. I know, I've hacked into JARVIS before... when I was still with the- you know-"

"-the Rising Tide?"

Daisy nodded.

Peter stared at her, taking another deep breath before releasing it.

"Okay... I believe you."

Daisy smiled.

"What do you want, then, from me, if you're not trying to expose me?" Peter asked, his expression serious.

"You saved my life," Daisy said it like it was the simplest, most logical explanation in the whole world. "So it's partly that, gratitude. And, you've inspired me. I want in."

"You... _want in_?"

"Superheroing. Crime-fighting."

"WHAT?!" Peter almost jumped off the bed, before lowering his tone for fear of alerting Aunt May. He spoke the rest in an angry hush: "I didn't even know you existed half an hour ago, and you want me to make you my Robin?!"

Daisy smiled. "Close. Oracle."

"What?"

"I want to be your Oracle. I hate Robin, and, I'm not much of a gymnast. I wanna be the Oracle to your Batman, the Cisco to your Flash... you know, because, I just love Cisco, he's... _neat_ , super-funny!"

Peter was about to retort an 'absolutely not!' but, then, he paused, his amazing mind already juggling the possibilities and the consequences of such an action. In her favour were the facts that Daisy already knew who he was, and she was obviously good at what she was claiming that she could do, otherwise she would not be sitting here. And if she really _could_ hack into the Pentagon and the Kremlin, well, his crime-fighting standards could go through the roof. Here he was, just a few days ago, unable to figure out a way to tap into the police radio so he could get to anywhere there was trouble in time.

But, he had to consider the cons: she appeared to be the same age as him, so he couldn't tell her that she was young, she would just throw it right back at him. But he had superpowers - _actual_ superpowers - she did not. "You could get hurt, you could get caught in a crossfire. Til now I've only been going after petty crime but I intend to go big soon... powerful men, actual threats..."

"I can help-"

"You could get _killed-_ "

" _My_ decision to make-"

"I don't want that on my conscience-"

"That could happen _only_ if they track me down, somehow, which is not happening. I don't plan to go out into the field, ever. I'll be in as much danger as your Aunt May over there, you're already risking her by just _being_ who you are, aren't you? You can risk me."

Peter sighed, shoulders slumping. "But... it's not just about you, right? What about your family?"

Daisy smiled, but Peter picked up something different about her smile this time. Peter had always been good at reading people, it was what he considered to be his only super-power before the spider-bite. It was not like her first few smiles, though the change was subtle, it was there. She was sad, hurt.

"I... don't really have... anyone... to worry about me, so you're safe on that front," she shrugged, and looked down.

Peter instantly felt like a complete jack-ass. "Oh...! I'm, I'm so s-sorry, I didn't know-"

"It's not your fault!" Daisy looked back up at him again, hazel eyes meeting his blue ones. "I... guess you deserve to know, I'm asking to work together with you so you should know about my history. I grew up in an orphanage, and, they didn't even really know if I was an orphan. I was found on a doorstep, with only a small flower - a daisy - with me in the basket... I've switched three foster homes, and couldn't settle in with any of them; long story. The fourth set of foster parents, the Brodys, died yesterday, in the fire you saved me from."

"I'm so sorry, I..."

"It's okay," she smiled at him, though he could see actual tears in her eyes now. "I didn't know them... for more than a week but..." a tear escaped her eyes, and she wiped it away. "I-I'm sorry, it's just... they were nice people. I thought, for a few days, before the fire, I thought... I'd actually f-f-f-finally found a h-home..."

She bit her lower lip as more tears began to leak from her eyes. Peter couldn't bear it anymore. It reminded him way too much of how he had felt for the first few days after Uncle Ben's death. So he did to her what Aunt May had done to him to calm him down, because nothing else _ever_ seemed to work. He shifted closer to her on the bed and hugged her.

She gasped, having not expected that, before slowly raising her hands and hugging him back. She choked, and began to sob on his shoulder for a good minute, before pulling back.

"I-I'm sorry, I..."

"It's okay. I know _exactly_ how you feel, but I had my uncle and aunt when I lost my parents, and I had my aunt when I lost my uncle. We all need a shoulder to cry on," Peter gave her a soft, comforting smile, squeezing her shoulder. She looked it him, eyes now red and puffy, before wiping away her tears, and smiling back.

"Thank you... I... just, thank you."

He nodded.

The two sat there, on Peter's bed, both staring at the floor for a few long moments, before Peter turned to look at her. "So, that means, you don't really have a home? Any place to go to? No school?"

"Not since I decided not to return to the orphanage... I don't want to go through that again, I just... can't, not right now."

Peter raised an eyebrow at that. "You can't be alone... I want to help you. I know Aunt May, if she knew everything you've been through, would love to take you in but..."

"No, no! That's not necessary!"

"We're struggling to make ends meet as it is, since my uncle is gone," Peter sighed, but then he had an idea.

"Peter, that's so sweet of you, but I don't need a home. I've been on the streets before, I can-"

"The streets?!" Peter exclaimed. "Of New York?! A-sorry, how old are you again?"

"Uh... I don't know my real birthday, but going by the day the orphanage found me would make me sixteen years old last month."

"Oh, I turn sixteen in five months; we're about the same age," Peter shook his head. "You are _not_ going out on the streets. No sidekick of mine is going to be a street urchin."

Daisy shook her head in denial vehemently. "Peter, that's sweet of you, but- did you say sidekick?" she stared at him, wide-eyed, before grinning. "You're letting me _in_?! _"_

"Honestly, you disarmed every argument I had in mind against not letting you in," Peter laughed. "And I'm the guy who wins my school the Academic Decathlon every. Single. Year! One chance. I'll give this a shot, but you _**never**_ go out into the field or put yourself in any dangerous situation, okay?"

Daisy smiled broadly, before giving a mock-salute. "I won't let you down, Cap... but let's just be clear, I'm a _partner_ , not a sidekick."

Peter got off the bed and grabbed his phone. Daisy stared at his back as he called someone, before finally asking, "Who are you calling?"

"You can bunk with me and my Aunt; I'm sure we can manage enough food for the three of us, since I plan to get a job and Aunt May's started working as a nurse again. We can convert the attic into a spare room; that's where I assemble most of my 'spider-gear' anyways, so you can set up your Oracle Shop there, and I can pull in a few favours to get you enrolment and a paid education at our school," Peter explained, and Daisy shot off the bed to protest and snatch away his phone but Peter, comically, pressed his hand against her mouth and held tight with his spider-strength, preventing her from escaping his grasp or speaking.

"I'm sorry, Daisy, but you're intelligent, exceptionally so and if there's one thing I absolutely cannot do is let that potential go to waste. If you don't want to take charity, then _don't_ : consider this part of the 'Terms and Conditions' of joining 'Spider-Man Incorporated'. Term One: 'You have to get a proper education'," Peter paused as someone on the other end picked up the phone.

"Hey Harry, what-up, what-up? Listen, I need a favour... remember all those times you offered to help me with school fees through the Osborn Foundation's Young Scholars Fund? Yeah, well, it's not for me, it's for a... a friend..."

Daisy simply glared at him, trying unsuccessfully to pry his hand off her mouth, but deep inside, she was overwhelmed with gratefulness. This guy, Peter Parker, he was so caring, so considerate and kind that it was unnatural in the world she grew up in. No one just gets up and allows a person into their home that they only just met less than an hour ago. But here he was, calling in favours for her sake.

Peter Parker was... _spectacular_ , both in and out of costume.

Knowing that he was not going to let this go, Daisy gave up protesting and, mouth still stuck behind Peter's palm, she smiled.

* * *

 **Later that night, 9:20 PM  
** **Sewers, New York City**

"Man, what I wouldn't give to get back to my old job," Jack muttered as he unscrewed the panel before pulling it open and looking at the cables travelling inside the building.

His coworker, Max, simply chuckled. "Look at you and always complaining," he said as he walked and crouched beside the cables, inspecting the damaged piece before pulling his toolbox over and beginning to work on the repairs.

"I'm just sayin', man, this place gives me the creeps," Jack said as he took a few steps back, his head bobbing back and forth in different directions, peaking into dark corners, as if on high alert. "I mean, ya'know, they've been talkin' about crocodiles living in the New York sewers for ages..."

"Do you even know what a crocodile is?" Max chortled, earning a glare from Jack. "Urban legends, man. I don't think even a croc can survive the horrid stench in this place."

He did not receive a response for several seconds, however, so Max naturally turned around to look.

Jack was nowhere to be found.

"What the-? Jack? HEY!" he called out, echos of his voice ricocheting off the endless network of underground pipelines. Despite knowing - full well - that this was a prank, and Jack was trying to one up him, Max felt himself beginning to tremble somewhat in fear.

"Jack!" he called out again, walking backwards away from the panel with only a small torchlight in his hand. He didn't believe there were crocodiles in New York's sewers, but considering the fact that there was a man in tights swinging around New York webbing up creeps all over the place, he didn't really know what to believe anymore.

"JACK!" he called out again, before he suddenly felt his back bump against something.

"AH!" screaming, the man flipped around, his torchlight illuminating the face of his coworker and making him look like a pale ghost.

"Ha, ha, hahaha!" Jack laughed, and Max really wanted to slap the living daylights out of him at that point.

"Hey, that's not funny, you bastard!" Max yelled, stomping forward to punch Jack in the gut for the prank he pulled.

"No, crocodiles in the sewers, huh?! Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Jack laughed, before suddenly, something caught his eye. Something moving in the shadows behind Max. "What the- Max, behind you!"

"Ha! Call me stupid if I fall for _that_ one twice," Max pulled his sleeves up, ready to give Jack a beating.

"No, Max, look, it-it-it-has a tail!" Jack yelled, quickly moving back. The creature, whatever it was, was at least 8 feet long, not to mention the long tail behind its back, and it stuck upside down on the ceiling of the pipeline. "I'm serious- RUN!"

"Ha, ha," Max mocked, not turning around, but those would be his last words. A gigantic, greenish-grey claw pierced straight through his chest and he screamed in agony, before a huge maw of fangs plunged itself into his throat.

"AAAAH!" Jack screamed and ran back the way he had come, but the creature was alerted to his presence by his noise, and it leapt back up onto the sewer pipe ceiling again, stalking after its next prey.

Quick on his feet, Jack leapt out of the pipeline into the next one and sealed the entrance shut moments before a huge, clawed dent appeared in the seal, followed by an inhuman, gurgling roar on the other side. Screaming, Jack quickly made his way up the laddercase and out of the manhole.

* * *

 **Midtown High  
** **Next Morning**

Daisy Johnson left the Principal's Secretary's office with her schedule for her first day of school in her hand. Honestly, the last thing she wanted was to be here, but Peter was as stubborn as they came. Daisy shook her head at the thought, before smiling. He was right, if she really thought about it: if she went to school, she could go to college and if she went to college, she could find a decent job. An honest living. That was a much better life than staying on the streets and hacking ATMs to get money to survive for the rest of her life. Walking through the school hallway, she found the locker that had been assigned to her.

"Whoa... Cotton Candy, new, twelve o' clock," Kenny Kong whispered to his best buddy Flash and the king of jocks turned to look at the new girl.

"Suh- _weet_!" Flash grinned, before harrumphing and puffing out his chest and walking over to where Daisy was standing. "Hello, _Beautiful_. What's a pretty thing like you doing all alone in the school hallway? Why don't you ask my name and I ask yours so we can get to know each other a lil' better?"

Daisy heard him, and sighed. Of course, going to school meant putting up with guys like this one.

Peter Parker was **dead** the next time she saw him.

"Lemme guess," she turned around and gave Flash the sweetest smile ever, and Flash turned a bright shade of pink, a wolf howling in his mind then and there. "First name Shit, second name Head."

"Burn!" Kenny laughed behind him, and Flash growled at that, before smiling sweetly as he intended to try again.

"Actually, Daisy, he doesn't really have a 'head', so it's just 'Shit'," Peter's voice interrupted Flash's next lady-killer move as he walked towards them, Harry Osborn and Cindy Moon besides him.

"What the f*** did you just say to me, Parker?!" Flash raged. Steam coming out of his nose, the King of Jocks immediately pulled his sleeves back, ready to give Parker another beating and trying desperately to ignore Kenny's howling cackle behind him. Flash's voice carried through the hallway, and soon enough, people began to gather around.

"Well, if isn't my dreamy boyfriend himself, coming to rescue me from this horrific monstrosity," Daisy quipped, pointing at Flash she moved back to stand in line with Peter and his friends.

Peter blushed a brilliant pink. "D-Dreamy-?"

Flash's jaw hung open. "-B-Boyfriend?!"

" _What?!_ " Cindy screamed, but somehow she was ignored. The rest of the school was trying to put with the horrific thought of Puny Parker having a girlfriend, and a cute one at that.

"NO! That's not true... that's _impossible_!" Harry parodied Luke Skywalker down to every single expression. He too was somehow ignored by the gossiping girls and the head-scratching guys in the gathered crowd, but Peter, despite himself couldn't stop himself from smirking at that.

 _Good one, Harry._

"This guy, is your _boyfriend_?!" Flash pointed at Peter.

"Yeah...!" Daisy declared proudly, moving her hand over to Peter's shoulder. "And he can kick your ass to next century, Johnny Bravo, so back away."

Daisy then leaned into the blushing Peter's ear and whispered. "You don't really have another girlfriend I just made enemies of, do you?"

"N-N-No, but-Daisy, why did you-? How-? Y-You realise you just ruined your chance with the popular crowd, right?" Peter whispered back.

"What? You're the one with the super strength. I thought _you'd_ be the guy with the popular crowd," Daisy whispered back with a raised eyebrow.

"HA!" Flash, Kenny, and the rest of Flash's friends who had gathered behind him all began to laugh. "Him? Kick my ass?! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! This is so funny I don't even wanna give you a swirlie anymore, Parker! This just made my day!" Flash wiped an imaginary tear of joy from his eyes before turning around and calling out to Daisy behind his back as he left the hallway and the crowd began to disperse. "Tough luck, Sweet Cheeks. Stick around the school for a few days and get to actually know the wimp you're dating and then maybe I'll give you another chance. Hahahahahaha...!"

"Ooookay..." Daisy drawled. "That could have gone better..."

"Yeah, rule number one of being at Midtown High: never associate yourself with Puny Parker o'er here," Harry said hitting Peter's chest with his thumb before taking Daisy's hand and kissing its back. "Harold Euphemius Osborn the Third, at your service, m'Lady."

Peter rolled his eyes, Cindy stared as if lost, and Daisy smiled. "Harry, right? Thank you _so_ much for all the strings you pulled for me."

"For a pretty face like yours? Anything," Harry gave his million dollar smile in return, and Daisy grinned playfully.

"Ahem," Cindy made her presence known again. Inwardly, she was seething. Who the heck was this girl, why did she know Peter and Harry and how _dare_ she call herself his girlfriend like that? That wasn't true! There was no way that was true.

"Oh, right, Cin, this is Daisy Johnson," Peter began the introductions. "Daze, this is Cindy Moon. She's our Princess Leia."

"Pleasure to meet you," Daisy brought her hand forward for Cindy to shake, who, despite herself, shook it back. "Wait... if you're Leia, Peter's Luke and Harry's Han, what does that make-?"

"Chewie," Peter supplied instantaneously.

"Uh... _no._ " Daisy deadpanned.

"Trust me, it fits. You and Chewie have the same hair style _and_ colour," Peter justified, earning him a playful shove from the girl in question.

Cindy simply glared at the two without them noticing, but she put on her sweetest voice. "You're not _really_ his girlfriend, right?"

Harry, knowingly, slung a hand around Cindy's shoulder. "What are you talkin' about, Cin? They're already living together."

"What?!" Cindy wanted to murder Harry then and there, but she turned towards Peter. "What is talking he talking about?"

Peter raised his hands to calm Cindy down. "I-It's not like that," he said, before giving the sheepish looking Daisy a soft glare and thinking back to their cover story. "She's a daughter of a friend of my Aunt May... her foster parents passed away two days ago so now she's living with us, yes, but it's nothing like..." he turned to glare at Harry, who laughed, "... _that_."

"Yeah," Daisy grinned. "He gets the nice, big room. I get the cramped attic."

Cindy tried not to glare. She had known Peter for years, and this girl just shows up two days ago and so boldly claims to be his girlfriend, and messes around with him like they've known each other forever? This did _not_ sit well with Cindy Moon.

"I'm sorry about your foster parents," Cindy said, but she didn't really mean that, despite knowing that she should have, and it kinda felt terrible, but at the same time it didn't.

Daisy smiled sadly and simply nodded in response, "It's okay."

"Alright, my fellow Knights of the Nerd Table, hate to burst this pretty bubble but we're late for Conners' class, and I kinda need the credit, so..." Harry said, and the four of them walked together towards the classroom, Cindy glaring at the back of Daisy's head for the remainder of the school day.

* * *

 **2:30 PM, later that day  
Inside New York Community Bank**

Herman Schultz, clad in a long grey trench coat that almost concealed his entire form, a yellowish, netted face mask and a grey hat, walked into the Bank building. After being promoted for taking down a walking power plant, Osborn had him chasing after after a freakin' bug. Schultz didn't really want to get himself involved in messing with superheros, but this guy, from the news and videos he had seen, was small, scrawny; obviously no Iron Man. Besides, Osborn had deep pockets.

Really deep pockets.

And Schultz prided himself in being a professional, so here he was, ready to reel in a spider and claim a paycheck.

"Itsy bitsy spider, went up the water spout~" he sang in a Southern accent, loudly, everyone's attention in the bank turning to him.

"What in the world?" May Parker muttered, as the red-head middle-aged woman turned in the direction of strange man singing loudly while standing in the middle of the bank floor. "What is that guy, a lunatic?" she asked no one in particular, but she spoke loudly, and he heard her.

"Actually, darlin'," Schultz threw off his grey cloak, eliciting frightened gasps from everyone, including May. "They call me _Shocker_!"

He aimed one his gauntlets directly at May, who screamed in fright, her last thought being of her nephew Peter and his new friend who was now living with them.

* * *

 **Outside the Bank**

The streets around the Bank were littered with New Yorkers were going about their daily routine, when a sonic blast tore through the bank wall, blowing chunks of debris everywhere on the street and the road. Several frightened and shocked screams and gasps followed, preceding the sound of tires dragging across the road as drivers tried desperately to avoid the chunks of debris - the mess culminating in a car crashing into a truck which flipped over itself and crashed upside down, right in the middle of the square.

* * *

 **Reviews requested; remember to visit the poll on my profile.  
** **End of line.**


	6. A Shock to the System

**Author Note: ****Thank you to all the good fellows who reviewed. Keep at it.**

Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified _Nephila clavipes_ (a golden silk orb-weaver spider), boy genius and grade A nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighbourhood protector.

* * *

 **The Orb Weaver  
** **Book One _  
Chapter Six - A Shock to the System_**

* * *

 **Midtown High  
** **Biology Class**

"Regeneration," Cindy heard Professor Connors' voice in the background of her mind, as she drilled holes into the back of the new girl, Daisy Johnson's head, "is the process by which some organisms replace lost body parts. Now, there are a number of regenerative mechanisms inherent in different species. Regeneration is most common in invertebrates, occurring in almost all coelenterates and planarians, most annelids, and many insects. Now, which of you young, aspiring biologists can define ' _Autotomy_ '? Hmm?"

The question snapped Cindy out of her murderous thoughts regarding the brunette sitting in the desk in front of her. She was about to raise her hand, but the Professor had his eyes on the brunette in question, who seemed to not really be paying attention and, instead, was doodling something on the blank page after the Foreword of her Bio textbook.

"Let's give the new ones an opportunity to shine, hmm? Miss Johnson?"

Daisy looked up at the Professor, before stuttering. "H-Huh? I, uh..."

Professor Connors gave a slightly disapproving look. "Miss Johnson, I know it's your first day, but understand that joining in the middle of the term only means that you should strive harder to catch up- yes, Miss Moon?"

Cindy had raised her hand then, and she stood up once she had Connors' attention. "Autotomy is defined as the spontaneous loss and replacement of a body part. It occurs in many insects and crustaceans, and enables them to shed a crippled leg or claw."

"Excellent, Miss Moon. Please sit down," Curt gave an approving smile, before placing his good hand on the stump attached to his right shoulder. "If that's too hard to retain for your exams, class, just remember that 'Autotomy' is the one superpower Professor Connors really, really wished he had."

At that, many students in the class smiled while some - including Peter - even laughed at the Professor's lighthearted jibe at himself.

Daisy leaned back in her seat, her mood clearly soured. Cindy sat back down, a triumphant smirk on her face. _'Ha, serves you right, not paying any attention in class right from the very first day. What a troublemaker... poor Peter must be really annoyed, being forced to live with someone like **her** of all people. She's almost as bad as Liz.'_

Cindy spared Peter a glance, who too was in front of her, in the desk next to Daisy. She saw him leaning closer to Daisy and whispering something to her, and Daisy turned to him and smiled again.

Cindy instantly glowered at that scene. _'What the heck, Pete?!'_

"Don't worry about Doc Connors, he means well. You're the computer geek, _I'm_ the bio geek," was what Peter had whispered to Daisy, when she turned to him and smiled in response. Peter, his spider-vision far exceeding that of anyone else, could clearly see what Daisy had been doodling: a sketch of a little girl next to two elder figures, the female having the same hair as the girl and the male a similar face.

Peter couldn't really imagine what that felt like. At least _he_ knew who his parents were, and he had their photographs plus a few, early memories. Daisy didn't even have that.

She had begun sketching again. It seemed that what she excelled at other than hacking was drawing; Peter saw her draw mini-figures of herself, him, Harry and Cindy standing together, the resemblance being spot-on. Underneath, she signed 'SM Inc.,' and Peter hid his laughter at that. Maybe one day he'd tell Harry and Cindy too. Once the situation with Harry's Dad cleared up... he had intended to pay Oscorp a visit last night, but then he had to reschedule to help Daisy move in.

"An artist _and_ a hacker, intriguing combination," Peter whispered to her again. The great thing about having spider powers was that he knew exactly when to speak without Connors noticing.

Daisy grinned at him, and unbeknownst to the two of them, Cindy seethed behind them almost at the same time as Flash Thompson communicated, through hand gestures, to his friends Kong and Rand, plus his girlfriend Liz and her group consisting of Gwen and Sally. He directed their attention to the whispering and laughing Peter and Daisy.

 _'Target acquired,'_ Liz Allan smirked at Dumber Dorker and his new 'girlfriend', knowing full well what Flash was trying to say.

Daisy's phone vibrated in her pants' pocket twice. Alarmed, she sneaked it out; she knew what the double-vibration signified, she had set it up her herself. The moment Dr. Connors turned his back to them, Daisy nudged Peter and showed him her phone at a strange angle from her under her desk; she knew he could see the scrolling lines of text clearly thanks to his spider-vision.

 _' SNIPS: CNN: Suspected terrorist attack at New York Community Bank. NYPD Freq: All units converge on New York Community Bank immediately, one terrorist, armed with some sort of sonic weapon, extremely dangerous. __The terrorist has hostages, saying 'I want the Spider-Man'._ _SWAT Freq: All teams converging on the Bank now-'_

"Doctor Connors," Peter raised his hand.

Confused by the interruption, Curt looked behind. "Yes, Parker?"

"I uh... I need... to go the... bathroom?"

* * *

 **New York Skyline  
**  
Snagging web-line after web-line, the Spider-Man swung as fast as he could. Peter had been so lucky he had decided to wear his Spider-Man suit under his typical college clothes; it had been too much Superman for his opinion, and if there was one comic character Peter wasn't a fan of it was the Man of Steel, but Daisy had insisted it was a good idea. Guess she was right about that one.

"Ahsoka, update me on the hostage situation at the Bank," Spider-Man said.

 _'Displaying live feed,'_ in one corner of his HUD, Ahsoka pulled up a small picture-in-picture video of a news network reporting live from the seen. He saw that the terrorist or whatever he was had blown a giant hole in the bank wall, and the reporter was already citing multiple casualties.

"Oh crap," Spider-Man hissed under his breath as he pointed his clenched fist at a flag pole, a golden thread attaching it it and he tugged with all his spider strength, shooting through the air like a bullet. "What does that weirdo want with _me_?"

* * *

 **Midtown High**  
 **Biology Class**

Daisy was counting the seconds in her head as she stared at the clock on the wall. The bell finally rang, signifying the end of class.

"Oh, that's it for today I guess," Professor Connors said as students began to get up. "I wonder whatever happened to Mister Parker, he never came back... oh, and class, remember to pre-read page 213 to 215 of your Bio textbook for our next lesson!"

Literally shovelling everything into her bag Daisy and bolted faster than anyone, almost out of the door when the Professor called her name. "Miss Johnson?"

 _'Crap, crap, crap, not **now** ,' _Daisy put on her best smile before turning to the Professor. "Yes, sir?"

"Miss Moon, you stay behind as well," the Professor added, and Daisy exchanged a glance with the Korean girl, who was looking at her strangely. The class emptied, and Daisy really wanted to _strangle_ Professor Connors then and there. Peter needed her, she needed to be next to a freakin' computer or smartphone, not stuck in Bio class, not right now.

"Yes, Professor?" Cindy asked as she approached Connors' desk, where he sat and Daisy, restraining her anxiety, walked over there as well.

"Miss Johnson," the Professor began. "I understand this is your first day, and since we're already a quarter of the way through the syllabus, you've fallen quite behind. Miss Moon," Curt turned to Cindy. "I've always believed in cooperation among students, ever since I was one. Since you excel at this subject, I'm assigning you as Miss Johnson's tutor for the next few months. You are to help her catch up, whether during any free lessons or after school is up to your discretion."

Daisy and Cindy exchanged another glance, both clearly apprehensive of the idea, but for vastly different reasons.

'Oh...'

'... no...'

* * *

 **New York Community Bank  
**  
Standing with one foot on top of the heap of rubble he had created that had once been a bank wall, Shocker called out to the police gathered outside through a horn. "A'right, I'm gettin' tired o' waitin'. Find me the Spider in five minutes or e'eryone still breathin', won't-"

Two powerful, black-clad feet came out of nowhere faster than Shocker's eyes could track and planted themselves in his face, launching him through the air and crashing him into a cash counter as the guy behind the counter leapt for cover, screaming.

"Suzie, I'm home! Did you miss me?"

Spider-Man landed in a crouched four-legged position on the ground. Knowing Shocker was momentarily disoriented, he spared a glance at the hostages, before standing up straight, alarmed. There was a vibration signature here that registered in his spider-senses as familiar, _too_ familiar... his eyes caught sight of a mop of red hair in one corner of the collapsed wall.

"N-No..." voice quivering, Spider-Man leapt, landing next to the fallen female he knew too well. 'AUNT MAY!' he shouted in his head, his heart sinking, as he quickly turned the unconscious woman onto her back and placed two fingers against her throat to check for a pulse.

A faint one, but it was there.

Weakly, she opened her eyes, and looked at him. "No... don't... S-Spider-Man...?" were three words that came out of her mouth before her eyes closed and she relapsed into unconsciousness.

Ensuring that her pulse was still going, Peter quickly lifted her up bridal style before shooting a web-line out of the building through the open wall Shocker had destroyed.

"Medic!" he shouted, as the rescue workers, filing their amazement and/or apprehension at seeing the Spider-Man this close to the back of their minds to do their professional duty, slid the gurney over and Spider-Man laid May down onto it, gently.

Moving back, his heart settling in the pit of his stomach as he saw them begin the emergency treatment, Spider-Man asked, "I-Is she gonna be alright?"

He would not receive an answer as right then and there something hit from from the side. Something that felt like the lovechild of an African elephant and a blue whale.

" **AH!** " Spider-Man yelled as he was launched through the air and crashed into a nearby police car, bending the car's frame into a giant hole. He slipped down onto the road butt-first, back against the horrifically deformed car, every bone in his body feeling like it had turned into powder. His left gauntlet sent out shooting sparks, the web shooting mechanism he had designed for his artificial webbing had been fried. Plus, he couldn't even get back up - whatever Shocker had hit him with had overloaded Peter's vibration sense so he couldn't even focus properly without suffering an intense bout of vertigo.

* * *

 **Midtown High**  
 **School Hallway**

Daisy sprinted down the school hall towards the doors - she needed to get away from the other students and somewhere private to help Peter; it would mean she would have to cut the next classes but that was a small sacrifice that she knew she had to make.

She was almost at the door when, suddenly, she felt something press against her shoulder she was pulled back. She saw it was a girl from her class, who pulled her back and then pushed her straight into two other girls from the same class.

Gwen Stacy and Sally Avril held onto Daisy's arms to prevent her from escaping as Liz Allan walked up to her with a confident smirk on her face.

"Hey! What're you doing?! Lemme go, I have to be somewhere right now!" Daisy protested, but the two girls at her side prevented her from leaving, one latching onto each of her arms. "Hey!"

"Where? With your 'boyfriend'?" Liz Allan sneered, and Daisy stopped moving and glared back at Liz. "Oooh... a girl with some fight in her, I like that. This'll make what I'm about to do even more fun. Think of this as an Orientation: see, since its your first day and you decided to bunk with the Geek Squad, we're gonna show you who's at the top of the food chain around here, and who's at the bottom."

As she said that, Liz pulled out a can of spray paint from her purse, "Let's turn that pretty brown hair of yours a bright shade of pink."

Daisy sighed. "Okay, just remember, you forced me to do this, you Creepy Paint Lady."

Daisy suddenly slammed her elbows behind into Gwen and Sally's stomachs, knocking the wind out of them and pushing them both screaming onto the floor below. Seizing the moment of shocked confusion, Daisy ducked under Liz's side and bolted out the door.

"Get her!" Liz shouted, but by the time Gwen and Sally were on their feet again, clutching their aching midsections, Daisy was long gone.

From one corner, were narrowed eyes, Cindy Moon observed the whole fiasco take place.

* * *

 **Outside the Bank**

"Hehe, yer not as big as ye were on the damn TV," Shocker said as he stepped out of the rubble. "Yer comin' with me, Web-Head."

"Grr... you f**king bastard," Spider-Man growled, his mind suddenly clouded with predatory, feral feelings that he did not even know he could feel. He wanted to punch this man's face into the ground until it bled, and then some. He had hurt - almost _killed_ \- Aunt May.

Mayday Reilly Parker. The only one Peter had left in this world.

"Good ta know yer language is more colourful as yer outfit," Shocker thrust his palm forwards, and Peter finally recovered enough of his senses to see the gauntlet sending compressed air waves in his direction.

Moving fast, Spider-Man flipped over the deformed police car behind him to land behind it. The shock wave hit the car, literally flattening it and sending it tumbling towards Spider-Man behind it, but Spider-Man sensationally fast, performing a handstand on reflex and twisting his legs before smashing both feet into the car and sending it hurtling towards Shocker.

The villain-in-question's eyes widened behind his yellow mask and he ducked for cover moments before what-had-once-been-a-police-car crashed onto the road where he had been standing a moment prior.

Growling, Shocker fired shockwave after shockwave at the Spider-Man, but the Web-Head was fast, too fast. Spider-Man flipped, rotated, twisted and dived out of the range of every shockwave, as if seeing it coming before it even hit him. Through his spider senses, that is exactly what Spider-Man could do.

Normally, Peter would attempt to slay his opponents with his wisecracks, but seeing Aunt May in the state she was on, Spider-Man was determined to end this as quickly as possible. Somersaulting in place to dodge another shockwave, Spider-Man landed on all fours before shooting a golden web straight at Shocker's face, blinding him.

"AH!" Shocker yelled, moving back to pry the web off his face, but Spider-Man flipped to land on his hands right in front of him, before performing a handstand and launching two, spider-strength powered kicks at the man. Spider-Man could feel his feet come into contact with Shocker's padded suit, and in a passing thought the Boy Genius realised that Shocker's suit had been padded thus to absorb the backlash from his own shockwaves.

That gave him an idea.

Shocker, meanwhile, skidded on the ground and landed a few feet away, face first, due to the force of Spider-Man's double-kick.

Spider-Man turned his attention to his golden bracelets. The web-shooter in the bracelet on his left arm had been fried, that was the one that also contained his tracers.

"Ahsoka, right web-shooter. Set to Impact Web and increase pressure to 500 psi," Spider-Man whispered to his AI.

 _"You got it, Skyguy. Right web-shooter, setting: impact, pressure: 500 pounds per square inch. Left web-shooter, malfunction. Watch out!"_

His spider-senses registered the next shockwave even before Ahsoka's warning and Spider-Man flipped towards his right to avoid it, before shooting an organic golden web-line straight towards Shocker. Shocker blew the web-line away by shooting his shockwaves at it head-on, and the wave continued after tearing through the webbing before hitting Spider-Man again.

" _ **AAH**_!" Spider-Man screamed as being hit with the shockwave directly overloaded his vibration sense while shooting him straight through a pole, which bent and snapped into two by the intensity of the sonic blast and Spider-Man crashed behind it into the pavement, surrounded by a newly formed crater.

 _"Alert, vitals unstable,"_ Ahsoka's voice echoed in his head as numerous numbers flashed across his HUD, but for once, Spider-Man was not paying attention. _"Heart rate 102 bpm, temperature 38 degrees C, blood pressure 180/90, respiratory rate 60 breaths per minute. Contacting Remote User: 'Skye', to make sure you don't die."_

Spider-Man didn't really care if Ahsoka was trying to contact Daisy and tell her his sorry state; his head felt like it had been crushed under a truck, the intensity of the migraine was so severe that Peter's vision was literally swimming. He could feel the blood from his bleeding nose drenching his mask from the inside. Everything hurt so much that Spider-Man found himself unable to move.

Grinning proudly behind his mask, Shocker panted and stood up straight, before walking to the bleeding and writhing Spider-Man in the crater. Seeing him in that state, Shocker let his guard down, but Spider-Man was still conscious. Opening a single eye, Spider-Man saw Shocker's approaching feet and, with his artificial web-shooter still set at 500 psi, Spider-Man forced every muscle in his body to move as he raised his arm so fast it was a blur to Shocker and shot an Impact Web straight at Shocker's chest.

"WHAT?!"

The glob of artificial, silvery webbing struck straight at Shocker's chest before it expanded, surrounding his entire body and encasing him in an extremely durable web cocoon. So durable, that it absorbed his shockwaves much like the padding in his own suit, so that even when Shocker tried to fire his way out of the giant web ball he was now trapped in, he found his gauntlets rendered ineffective.

Spider-Man, still bleeding, pulled himself out of the crater. Peter was hurting, bleeding, angry, and he wanted to strangle this man right here for what he had done to Aunt May, but he had to get to where his aunt was first, because his work here was almost done. Spider-Man saw the police and SWAT teams surrounding their location, moving in.

"Wh-What did you want... with me?" Spider-Man growled out painfully, and Shocker, still struggling to free himself from the impact web, glared back at him.

"F**k off, you shitty bug."

The police took this as an opportunity to step in and do something really, really productive: "SPIDER-MAN, FREEZE!"

He didn't have time to deal with this right now. Spider-Man pulled his arm back and smacked it into Shocker's face so hard he was instantly knocked unconscious before, through all the pain and groans, back-flipping into the air, all in one swift movement that was so fast it was almost a blur to the surrounding police officers. Shooting a golden, organic web-line, Spider-Man web-zipped away into the New York skyline.

"He's gettin' away!" an officer yelled, before firing a shot that missed the escaping Spider-Man, but Captain George Stacy grabbed his hand and lowered.

"Let him go, son," the Police Captain said, turning to the unconscious Shocker trapped in the giant silvery web ball, "We're pretty much gonna have our hands full with this one as it is."

* * *

 **Random Alley, Manhattan**

His head throbbing, ears ringing dumbbells and nose bleeding rivers, Spider-Man found himself unable to coordinate himself in the air anymore. Being hit with Shocker's shockwaves head-on, twice, had literally overloaded his vibration sense. A web-line Spider-Man fired missed its target anchoring point by a good meter and Spider-Man fell into the alley, only for his fall to be broken by an open trash container into which he fell. He was disoriented, every muscle in his body aching, but nothing was as severe as the migraine that had engulfed his head.

 _"Peter? Peter are you there?"_ he heard Daisy's voice in the receiver in his mask, and almost gasped a sigh of relief. _"Peter!?"_

"C-can't m-move, head hurts... ugh!" Spider-Man groaned out, barely keeping himself unconscious through the pain.

 _"Oh, my goodness... Peter, hold t-tight, I'll track you through Ahsoka. I-I'm coming, Peter, okay? Stay awake and just follow the sound of my voice. Peter? Peter, stay with me, stay with me! Peter, are you there? PETER!"_ those were the last words Peter heard before the darkness overcame him.

* * *

 **An Hour Later**

"Peter?"

As he began to come to, Peter felt like someone had run a truck over him, but as the memories came rushing to him he shot upright to sit on his hips.

"Ow!"

"Ah!"

Only for his head to hit a girl's - it was Daisy, Peter recognised the mop of brown hair once his vision cleared somewhat. "Wha-where?"

"I had to deal with Professor Connors, skip the next two classes, fight through three crazy bullies, exchange two taxis and come all the way from Midtown to here, and I get greeted with a freakin' head bump?" she ranted, as she held her forehead which had been hit with Peter's own masked head. Peter, due to his enhanced durability, hadn't even really felt the blow, but Daisy felt it hard, and it hurt.

"I'm sorry," Peter apologised, before passing a hand over his face and then looking down at himself: the shirt of his costume was off, but the mask was still on. "Why am I...?"

Daisy blushed and still holding her head, crouched down to pick up the black shirt with a golden spider pattern from the ground before throwing it at Spider-Man and immediately looked in the other direction. She hadn't expected him to be so... well-toned.

"I know basic First Aid," she explained, still looking away, as Spider-Man put the shirt on to complete his costume, "I've been on the streets long enough before to know basic survival skills... I had to make sure you were alright. We're lucky you decided to blank out in a dark, abandoned alley with no people around to ask questions... I made sure no one was looking and unmasked you for a little bit. You were bleeding through your nose, I didn't know what to do about that, but I cleaned it up, and you had huge blue bruises all over your chest but they seemed to have faded just before you woke up... you just heal really fast, I guess."

She turned around to see Spider-Man sitting on the ground, fully costumed again, and held out her hand, which he gratefully took and pulled himself onto his feet.

Then, Spider-Man pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her mid-riff and she blushed again - now she even knew what he looked like underneath that already skin-tight costume of his, and she couldn't shake the image out of her head - before he fired a yellow silk-line above and zipped himself along with her through the air. He flipped, with her, as she screamed and then laughed, and the two of them landed on the roof.

"Whoo!" Daisy gasped, as Spider-Man let her go and she found herself on the roof.

"This is wrong," Spider-Man said. "This is _crazy_. You shouldn't be here. You promised me you wouldn't come out into the field. What if someone saw us?"

Daisy glanced at him incredulously. "I thought you... you stopped talking. The built-in tracer in your suit was not moving. I was afraid you were _dead_ , Peter. What the crap was I supposed to do, go home and wait for you with May?"

"Aunt May..." Spider-Man's yellow lenses widened. He grabbed Daisy's shoulders. "Daisy, find Aunt May. She was at the Bank. She was hurt. Find out where they took her, now!"

"What?! How?" she pried his arms off her shoulders before pulling out her smartphone. While the Hospital or the authorities would've contacted Peter themselves once they had ID'd her, Peter had put a tracer in May's phone as well, just in case.

"She's at Bellevue- _hey_!"

Spider-Man didn't even let her finish as he wrapped his arm around her waist, fired a web-line, and leapt off the building.

* * *

 **Bellevue Hospital Center  
First Avenue and East 26th Street, Manhattan**

Peter Parker, in civilian clothes, and Daisy Johnson came running through the hospital corridor towards the reception desk.

"I'm Peter Parker!" Peter interrupted whatever the receptionist was doing, visibly upset. "My aunt... she was injured, in the attack at the bank-"

"May Parker?" she inquired, both Peter and Daisy nodded vehemently. "We just finished ID'ing her and I was about to call you. We just moved her out of the trauma center."

"So, that means she's alright?" Peter asked, a trace of a relieved smile on his face.

The receptionist shook her head. "She's stable, so we're moving her into a separate room. But she's comatose and she's suffered a traumatic disc herniation, so, even if she wakes up, she'll most likely have trouble walking for several months. I'm sorry."

And Peter Parker's whole world shattered apart.

* * *

 **CNN**

 _"Greetings New York, this is Sally Floyd bringing you the 'Views On News'. Today's top story: the terrorist attack at New York Community Bank; the terrorist in question apprehended by the police with the help of none other than the Spectacular Spider-Man. Yet, there were eleven casualties along with tremendous destruction of public and private property in the ensuing battle royale between the Spider-Man and the Shocker, and although no casualties have been reported deceased, one, a lady named May Parker, is in a coma. Joining us is senior investigative journalist, Dr. Ned Leeds, to give his take on the whole fiasco. Dr. Leeds?"_

 _"Hey Sally, hello New York. Glad to be here today."_

 _"Dr. Leeds, a hot trend on social media right now suggests that the Spider-Man and the Shocker may have been working together, staging a fight in order to garner more popularity for the Spider-Man. This is supported by the fact that the Shocker specifically called for the Spider-Man as his only demand, instead of any ransom or anything else. What are your thoughts on that?"_

 _"I don't know. We don't know. We don't know anything about the Spider-Man or the Shocker, especially since the NYPD is keeping any investigations from the latter under wraps until further notice... but, and this is my opinion, I don't think that's the case. The Shocker, from his modus operandi, appears to be more of the psycho-'I-wanna-challenge-you' kind of... bad guy, even more so than a terrorist. Uh... he probably wanted to test the strength of these 'shock gauntlets' he invented - and I think that is what they're being called now - against the, uh, Spider-Man, whom he must have considered some kind of an exotic challenge. But until we know for sure... until the Spider-Man actually talks to us or decides to tell us who he is like Tony did... because til now he's just been this huge, web-slinging mystery... there's really no way to be sure, I guess, and there is a lot of mistrust in the general public about... 'Enhanced' people like the Spider-Man."_

* * *

 **That night  
Times Square**

A man clad in a long, dark trench coat, most of his face concealed beneath a black hat, stood beneath a light pole as he stared at the giant screen in the middle of Times Square, displaying the CNN news show along with footage of the actual battle between the Shocker and the Spider-Man that had taken place earlier that morning.

 **"So you finally slipped up, didn't you, Schultz?"** the man muttered, his voice hoarse, as if water hadn't touched his throat for years. His lips, a dark blue, fashioned into a malicious smirk across his unnaturally pale visage. **"The NYPD, eh? First I'm gonna kill you... then there'll be no one to keep me from Osborn. I'll end you both, slowly and painfully, the way you ended me...!"**

In a sudden, blinding flash of light, the man disappeared instantaneously as if he had never been standing there. Bolts of lightning shot out from the place where he had been standing a second prior and struck random passerbys, who yelled out of fright and confusion, running away.

No one noticed the bluish-white arc of electricity dancing around the street light at the top of the light pole; the street light which burst apart a moment later. Small shards of glass rained down on from the street light on the electrified but otherwise empty street.

* * *

 **May Parker's Room**

A tear flowing down his eye, Peter stared at the unconscious form of his aunt as he sat at the side of her bed, his right hand on her's. Daisy stood beside him, a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Pete," she said softly, but he remained silently.

The two remained there in silence after that. Minutes turned into hours, and Daisy sat on the bench next to Peter, before she finally broke the silence. "Maybe... I should just leave."

"What?" Peter turned to glance at her. "No, please, I don't want to be alone with my Aunt or anything... I think I actually need the company."

"No," Daisy smiled sadly at him and squeezed his shoulder again. "I mean... leave. I go to the Brodys, six days later the whole building goes up in flames. I move into your house and two days later, _this_ happens," she waved her hand at the comatose May.

Peter gave her the 'have you lost your mind?' look.

"Look, Peter," Daisy sighed. "I'm sixteen years old and I haven't lived in the same place for more than two years. _Ever_. Something... _bad_... happens every time I feel settled somewhere. Maybe my parents were really bad people? Because I think I'm... I'm cursed or something. I bring bad luck wherever I go. Maybe I should become a crappy cat burglar and start calling myself 'the Black Cat'."

Understanding, Peter sighed and shook his head. "That's nonsense, you can't be cursed if you didn't do anything wrong. Stop blaming yourself... besides, this is _my_ fault."

"No," Daisy turned to look at him. "No! You did everything you could. You almost died out there, fighting that creep, but you won, and now he's behind bars."

Peter scowled. "But he wanted... he wanted to fight _'the_ _Spider-Man'_..."

Daisy nodded. "Yeah, the same Spider-Man who saved May, and a lot of other people, from dying. This isn't your fault, none of this is. May was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Peter sighed and shook his head, trying to clear up the cobwebs. Why had that Shocker guy wanted to fight him, was it just for a challenge?

'No', Peter remembered. "He said, 'you're coming with me'... he wanted to capture me."

Daisy glanced up at him, confused. "What? But, why?"

"I don't know," Peter got off the bench, turning towards the closed window. "But I'm going to find out."

Daisy stood and followed after him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to pay our friend 'Shocker' a visit," he clarified and Daisy found herself debating whether it was a good idea to let Peter go and break into police custody while he was still so massively emotionally compromised.

Peter slid open the window, the cool night breeze entering the room and dancing around them, blowing back her and Peter's hair.

He placed one foot on the window sill, "Meanwhile, I need you to find a computer, I'm sure there's one for public use in this hospital somewhere. Do your thing. There's bound to be _something_ on this guy, _somewhere_. Police files, CIA, FBI, SHIELD, just find me _anything_ you can _anywhere_ on 'The Shocker'. Who he is, what he is, and most importantly, who's he working for and has worked for in the past."

Daisy understood and nodded as she hugged herself for warmth against the cool breeze. "Okay, but Peter, please, I _beg_ you," she sounded desperate. " _Don't_ do anything stupid."

Peter remained as he was for a few seconds, unmoving. Then, his chest rose and fell in a deep sigh and he nodded, before jumping out the window.

Daisy walked over, glancing out the window to be greeted by the colourful night-time New York lights, before spotting a black dot swinging away on a yellow thread down below. She closed the window but kept it unlocked for Peter to come back. Turning around, Daisy stalked over to and out of the door on the other side of the room, stopping for a moment close it gently, before descending several flight of stairs to find herself a computer.

* * *

 **Reviews requested.**  
 **End of line.**


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